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A  CHILD'S   GUIDE  TO 
READING 


1  •-• 


•     •       • 

•:C::^-::: 


MILTON 


A  CHILD'S  GUIDE  TO 
READING 


BY 
JOHN    MACY 


The  greatest  pleasure  in  life  is  that  of  read- 
ing while  we  are  young.— William  Hazlitt. 

Though  in  all  great  and  combined  facts  there 
is  much  which  childhood  cannot  thoroughly  im- 
agine, there  is  also  in  very  many  a  great  deal 
which  can  only  be  truly  apprehended  for  the 
first  time  at  that  age.— Walter  Bagehot. 


New  York 

THE    BAKER   &   TAYLOR    COMPANY 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR   COMPANY 

Published,  November,  1909 


•  •     •  .'  • 


o     -^ 


■.;:.■•:■:;■■■■'■':■.■   :.••.■■> 


THE  TROW   PRESS,   NEW  YORK 


PREFACE 

This  is  a  Child's  Guide  to  Literature  and  not  a 
Guide  to  Juvenile  Books.  The  larger  part  of  the 
books  discussed  in  the  various  chapters  and  included 
in  the  supplementary  lists  were  written  for  adult 
readers,  and  nearly  all  of  them  are  at  least  as  inter- 
esting to  the  reader  of  forty  as  to  the  reader  of  four- 
teen. The  great  writers  are  the  goal  and  the  child 
is  the  traveler.  That  is  why  in  a  Child's  Guide 
appear  the  names  of  Browning,  Carlyle,  Tolstoi, 
Meredith,  Gibbon,  Darwin,  Plato,  ^schylus.  A 
normal  child  will  not  be  reading  those  masters,  cer- 
tainly not  all  of  them,  but  he  will  be  reading  toward 
them ;  and  between  the  greatest  names  will  be  found 
lesser  writers  who  make  easy  upward  slopes  for 
young  feet  that  are  climbing  to  the  highest.  In  the 
supplementary  lists  will  be  found  very  little  of  what 
is  admittedly  ephemeral,  and  still  less  of  that  kind 
of  "  Juvenile "  which  has  not  sufficient  literary 
quality  to  outlast  the  most  childish  interests  and 
tastes.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  have  any  feeling 
for  the  abundant  human  nature  of  children,  we  can- 
not invite  them  to  fly,  nor  pretend  that  we  have  our- 
selves flown,  to  the  severe  heights  of  Frederic  Harri- 

7 


26089 


o 


A ;  i>  ;  >  •  V, /  "^ J  J  ^  ^ :  /;J?ref ace 

son's  position  when  he  advises  that  we  read  onlj 
authors  of  the  first  rank  in  every  subject  and  every 
nation.  That  ideal,  which,  to  be  sure,  in  his  excellent 
essay  on  the  "  Choice  of  Books  "  is  tempered  by  his 
humanity  and  good  sense,  is  at  too  chilly  an  altitude 
for  a  Child's  Guide,  or,  I  should  think,  for  any  other 
guide  written  with  appreciation  of  what  kind  of  ad- 
vice ordinary  humanity  can  or  will  benefit  by. 

In  the  advice  offered  by  some  very  wise  men  to 
young  and  old  readers  there  is  much  that  is  amus- 
ingly paradoxical.  Schopenhauer,  like  Frederic 
Harrison,  enjoins  us  to  devote  our  reading  time  ex- 
clusively to  the  works  of  those  great  minds  of  all 
times  and  countries  which  overtop  the  rest  of  human- 
ity. Yet  Schopenhauer  is  giving  that  advice  in  a 
book  which  he  certainly  hopes  will  find  readers  and 
which,  however  great  we  may  consider  him,  his 
modesty  would  not  allow  him  to  rank  among  the 
works  of  the  greatest  minds  of  all  ages.  Emerson 
counsels  us  to  read  no  book  that  is  not  at  least  a  year 
old.  But  he  is  himself  writing  a  book  of  which  he 
and  his  publishers  undoubtedly  hope  to  sell  a  few 
copies  before  a  year  has  passed.  Thoreau  tells  us 
that  our  little  village  is  not  doing  very  much  for 
culture,  and  then  he  frightens  us  away  from  our 
poets  by  one  of  those  "  big  "  ideas  with  which  he  and 
the  other  preachers  of  his  generation  liked  to  make 
us  children  ashamed  of  ourselves.  "  The  works  of 
the  great  poets,"  he  says,  "  have  never  yet  been  read 
by  mankind,  for  only  great  poets  can  read  them." 
Well,  Thoreau,  whatever  else  he  was,  was  not  a  great 

8 


Preface 

poet,  and  yet  he  seems  to  have  read  the  great  ones 
and  to  have  understood  them  while  he  was  still  a 
young  man.  It  is  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  any- 
body can  read  the  great  poets.  That  is  the  lesson, 
if  there  is  one,  which  this  Guide  seeks  to  inculcate. 
There  should  be  a  chapter  in  this  book  about  the 
Bible  and  religious  writings.  But  practical  consid- 
erations debarred  it.  The  American  parent,  though 
quite  willing  to  intrust  to  others  many  matters  re- 
lating to  the  welfare  of  his  children,  usually  prefers 
to  give  his  own  counsels  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  the 
Bible  should  be  read  and  what  other  religious  works 
should  be  read  with  it. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I. — Op  Guides  and  Rules  for  Reading  .       .       .  17 

II. — ^The  Purpose  op  Reading 27 

III. — The  Reading  op  Fiction 40 

IV. — ^The  Reading  op  Fiction  {continued)  ...  60 

List  of  Fiction 71 

V. — The  Reading  op  Poetry 96 

VI. — The  Reading  op  Poetry  (continued)    .        .        .  109 

List  of  Books  of  Poetry 123 

VII. — ^The  Reading  op  History 143 

List  of  Works  of  History 153 

VIII. — ^The  Reading  op  Biography 164 

List  of  Biographies 172 

IX. — The  Reading  of  Essays 179 

List  of  Essays 192 

X. — The  Reading  op  Foreign  Classics     .       .       .  204 

XI. — The  Press  op  To-Day 217 

XII. — ^The  Study  of  Literature 235 

List  of  Works  on  Literature 257 

XIII. — Science  and  Philosophy 260 

List  of  Works  in  Science  and  Philosophy    .        .  267 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Milton Frontispiece 

Dickens 30 

Thackeray 46 

Scott 56 

Hawthorne 68 

Cooper 76 

Eliot 84 

Shelley 104 

Tennyson 120 

Longfellow 134 

Wordsworth         .        .        .       .    • 142 

Emerson 196 


A   CHILD'S   GUIDE   TO 
READING 


A   CHILD'S    GUIDE 
TO    READING 

CHAPTEK    I 
OF  GUIDES  AND  RULES  FOR  READING 

IF  you  ever  go  into  the  Maine  woods  to  hunt  and 
fish  you  will  have  as  your  companion  a  veteran 
of  forest  and  stream,  a  professional  guide.  It  will 
be  his  duty  to  show  you  where  the  game  and  fish  are 
most  plentiful ;  to  see  that  you  do  not  get  into  trouble 
with  the  authorities  by  breaking  the  game  laws;  to 
make  your  camp  comfortable;  and  if  you  are  very 
green,  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  you  lest  you  acci- 
dentally shoot  him  or  mistake  another  sportsman  for 
a  deer.  If  you  are  the  right  sort — the  Maine  guide 
is  almost  certain  to  be  the  right  sort — ^you  will  get 
a  great  deal  more  from  your  companion  than  the 
simple  services  for  which  you  pay  him.  He  will  be 
not  only  guide,  but  friend  and  philosopher,  and  will 
grudge  you  nothing  of  his  stores  of  wisdom,  kindli- 
ness, and  humor. 

If,  however,  you  are  to  receive  most  profit  and 
pleasure  from  life  in  the  woods  with  this  good  com- 
rade, you  must  do  your  part  of  the  work,  use  what 
wits  you  have,  and  not  show  a  disposition  to  lean 

17 


•  •  ' .  . '  . ,-  ;  ' . .'    ; A.  .(^Tni^ie,  rto  Reading 

too  limply  on  his  strength.  There  are  some  things 
that  the  best  guide  cannot  do.  ]^ot  only  will  he  be 
unable  to  think  for  you,  but  if  you  are  too  ready  to 
let  him  do  all  the  paddling,  he  will  give  you  only 
perfunctory  help  and  sulky  advice.  If,  on  the  con- 
trary, you  are  handy,  he  will  be  doubly  handy.  The 
more  you  learn,  the  more  he  can  tell  you.  The  more 
rapidly  you  approach  the  time  when  you  are  quali- 
fied to  set  up  as  professional  guide  yourself,  the  more 
you  will  enjoy  the  niceties  of  his  theories  of  hunting, 
fishing,  and  wood  lore. 

l!Tow,  a  guide  to  reading — if  he  be  of  the  right 
sort — can  do  for  the  beginner  in  literature  very 
much  the  same  degree  of  service  as  the  Maine  woods- 
man. The  literary  guide  is  merely  one  who  has  lived 
longer  among  books  than  the  unprofessional  reader. 
Since  he  has  elected  to  pass  his  life  in  the  literary 
woods,  he  may  be  supposed  to  have  a  good  nose  for 
interesting  clews,  and  sharp  eyes  and  alert  ears  for 
leading  signs.  He  knows  what  novels  are  good  fish- 
ing and  what  poetic  trees  are  sound  and  what  are 
hollow.  But  his  services,  however  willingly  tendered 
and  skillfully  performed,  have  limitations.  You 
must  do  your  own  thinking  and  your  own  reading, 
and  understand  that  only  when  you  cease  to  be  in 
floundering  need  of  a  guide  will  you  begin  to  receive 
the  richest  benefits  of  reading.  The  guide's  idea  of 
his  duty  is  to  help  you  to  get  along  altogether  with- 
out him. 

'No  guide,  no  literary  adviser  can  give  you  ears 
for  poetry  or  eyes  for  truth.     The  wisest  companion 

18 


Of  Guides  and  Rules  for  Reading 

can  only  persuade  you  to  live  among  good  books  in 
order  that  your  ear  may  have  opportunity  to  reveal 
its  fine  capacities  if  it  has  them,  and  in  order  that 
your  eye,  dwelling  upon  beautiful  things,  may  grow 
practiced  in  discernment.  He  cannot  read  for  you. 
If  you  do  not  intend  or  hope  to  read  any  of  the  books 
mentioned  in  this  volume,  it  will  be  waste  of  time 
for  you  to  turn  this  page.  If  you  passively  receive 
every  judgment  of  your  guide  about  the  merits  of 
the  scores  of  books  we  shall  discuss,  and  never  once 
question  or  try  his  judgment  for  yourself,  you  may 
be  learning  something  about  this  guide,  but  you  will 
not  be  learning  about  literature.  It  is  not  the  part 
of  a  good  pupil  to  surrender  right  of  private  judg- 
ment, but  it  is  his  part  to  give  his  judgment 
solid  matter  to  work  upon.  On  the  other  hand, 
too  much  independence,  especially  if  it  is  not 
grounded  in  experience,  is  not  modest.  Even  those 
who  have  read  a  good  deal  and  arrived  at  mature 
opinions  about  books,  may  be  content  to  accom- 
pany for  a  while  a  new  guide  whose  experience  has, 
necessarily,  been  different  from  that  of  others. 

Whatever  your  hope  or  intention,  your  guide  is 
only  a  guide;  he  has  not  power  to  lead  you  against 
your  will,  he  has  not  the  schoolmaster's  right  to  pre- 
scribe a  set  course  of  reading.  The  reading  must  be 
voluntary,  and  to  have  value  it  must  involve  some 
hard  work.  Healthful  entertainment  and  recreation 
we  can  safely  promise.  As  for  wisdom,  reverence, 
the  deeper  delights  of  communion  with  noble  minds, 
whether  you  meet  these  great  spiritual  experiences 

19 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

depends  on  you.  The  guide  can  merely  indicate 
where  they  may  be  sought. 

Let  us  at  the  outset  agree  not  to  map  out  our 
journey  too  rigidly.  A  young  friend  of  mine  con- 
ceived at  the  age  of  sixteen  the  inordinate  ambition 
to  read  everything  that  is  good.  He  procured  a  pub- 
lic library  catalogue,  and  asked  a  school-teacher  to 
check  off  the  titles  of  all  the  books  knowledge  of 
which  is  essential  to  a  perfect  education.  The  teacher 
smiled  and  confessed  that  she  did  not  know  even 
the  titles  herself.  She  might  have  added  that  neither 
does  any  one  else  know  the  titles,  much  less  the  in- 
sides,  of  all  good  books.  But  she  marked  some  hun- 
dred names,  and  the  ambitious  youngster  entered 
upon  his  long  feast.  He  never  finished  all  the  books 
that  were  checked,  for  one  or  two  proved  discourag- 
ingly  stiff  and  dull,  and  as  he  ran  his  eye  down  the 
list  for  the  next  prescribed  masterpiece  he  saw  other 
alluring  titles  which  were  not  checked,  and  he  wrote 
the  numbers  on  library  slips.  The  experience  taught 
him  that  he  must  select  books  for  himself,  and  that 
the  world^s  library  is  too  vast  for  anyone  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  all  its  treasures. 

A  youth  so  eager  to  know  good  books  can  be  trusted 
sooner  or  later  to  find  his  way  to  them.  For  the 
benefit  of  less  zealous  persons,  great  faith  used  to  be 
placed  in  lists  of  the  Hundred  Best  Books.  Such 
lists,  even  the  very  judicious  selection  made  by  Sir 
John  Lubbock  (Lord  Avebury),  can  never  be  satisfac- 
tory. Lord  Avebury  is  too  good  a  student  of  nature 
and  human  nature  to  regard  his  list  as  final.    It  was 

20 


Of  Guides  and  Rules  for  Reading 

not  final  for  one  man,  John  Ruskin,  who  has  given  us 
a  most  inspiring  essay  on  books,  "  Of  Kings'  Treas- 
ures." Ruskin  thought  that  Lubbock  had  included 
in  the  chosen  hundred  some  books  that  were  not  only 
unworthy  but  injurious.  !N"o  man  could  make  a  list 
which  would  fare  any  better  at  the  hands  of  another 
critic  of  solid  convictions.  Who  shall  select  a  social 
Four  Hundred,  all  of  whom  we  should  accept  as 
friends  ?  Who  can  select  a  Four  Hundred  or  a  One 
Hundred  of  books  and  not  leave  out  some  of  the 
noblest  and  best  ?  It  may  be  that  Lubbock  and  Rus- 
kin were  both  a  little  priggish  to  take  that  century 
of  masterpieces  quite  so  solemnly. 

In  books,  as  in  all  things,  we  cherish  much  that 
is  not  the  best,  but  is  good  in  its  way.  It  is  not 
natural  nor  right  to  reject  all  but  the  superlatively 
excellent.  It  is  natural  to  prefer  sometimes  a  book 
of  secondary  value,  and  it  is  perversely  natural  to 
turn  away  from  the  book  that  we  are  assured  too 
insistently  we  "  ought  to  read."  A  formal  list  of 
"  oughts  "  is  a  severe  test  for  ordinary  human  pa- 
tience. Becky  Sharp  in  "  Vanity  Fair  "  is  a  bad- 
tempered  and  bad-hearted  young  woman,  but  one 
can  have  a  little  sympathy  with  her  when  she  throws 
her  copy  of  Johnson's  Dictionary  at  the  head  of  her 
teacher  as  she  parts  forever  from  the  school  gates. 
It  is  not  altogether  her  fault  if  Johnson's  Dictionary 
seems  to  her  at  that  moment  of  all  printed  things 
the  most  detestable. 

Yet  perhaps  no  better  book  than  a  good  diction- 
ary could  be  found  whereon  to  base  a  library  and  a 

21 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

knowledge  of  literature.  The  wit  who  said  that  the 
dictionary  is  a  good  book,  but  changes  the  subject 
too  often,  told  but  a  partial  truth,  for  the  dictionary 
keeps  consistently  to  the  first  of  all  subjects,  the 
language  in  which  all  subjects  are  expressed.  If  it 
be  true  that  Americans  are  of  all  peoples  the  most 
assiduous  patrons  of  the  dictionary,  the  future  of 
our  popular  education  and  of  our  national  literature 
is  secure,  for  although  mere  words  will  not  make 
thought,  it  is  only  thoughtful  people  who  have  a 
zealous  interest  in  the  dictionary.  The  schoolmaster 
who  first  made  the  present  writer  conscious  that  there 
is  a  difference  between  good  English  and  bad  used 
to  tell  us  in  the  moments  when  regular  school  exer- 
cises were  pending  to  study  our  dictionaries.  The 
dictionary  would  be  a  reasonable  answer  to  that  de- 
lightful conundrum :  "  If  you  were  wrecked  on  a 
desert  island,  and  could  have  only  one  book,  what 
book  would  you  choose  ?  " 

The  shrewdest  of  all  answers  to  that  question 
evaded  it :  "I  should  spend  so  much  time  trying  to 
choose  the  book  that  I  should  miss  the  steamer  and 
not  be  wrecked."  These  conundrums — the  best  book  ? 
— the  best  hundred  books  ? — the  greatest  novel  ? — the 
greatest  poem  ? — are  not  to  be  answered.  The  use  of 
them  is  that  they  stir  our  imaginations  and  whet 
our  judgments.  If  we  come  close  and  try  to  settle 
them  in  earnest,  we  bring  tumbling  about  our  heads 
a  multitude  of  conflicting  answers.  Then  we  flee 
from  the  disorder  and  realize  that  conundrums  are 
only  stimulating  nonsense.    Individual  choice  among 

22 


Of  Guides  and  Eules  for  Reading 

the  riches  of  the  world's  literature  is  not  to  be  con- 
fined by  hard  and  fast  rules  and  tests. 

As  a  practical  matter  we  are  not  altogether  free  to 
choose.  Our  book  friends,  like  our  human  friends, 
are  in  part  chosen  for  us  by  accidental  encounters. 
We  do  not  wander  over  the  world  seeking  for  the 
dozen  souls  that  are  most  fit  to  be  grappled  to  us 
with  hoops  of  steel.  We  merely  choose  the  most  con- 
genial among  our  neighbors.  So  it  is  wdth  books. 
Each  of  us  wishes  to  select  the  best  among  such  as 
are  available,  to  have  judgment  in  accepting  the 
right  one  when  it  falls  in  our  way.  Biography  is 
full  of  instances  of  chance  encounters  in  the  world^s 
library  that  have  shaped  great  careers. 

John  Stuart  Mill  records  in  his  Autobiography 
how  Wordsworth's  poetry  brought  about  in  him  a 
spiritual  regeneration.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one, 
precociously  far  advanced  in  his  study  of  economics 
and  philosophy,  he  found  himself  dejected  and  with 
no  clear  outlook  upon  life.  He  had  often  heard  of 
the  uplifting  power  of  poetry,  and  read  the  whole  of 
Byron,  but  Byron  did  him  no  good.  He  took  up 
Wordsworth's  poems  "  from  curiosity,  with  no  expec- 
tation of  mental  relief."  "  I  found  myself,"  he  says, 
"  at  once  better  and  happier  as  I  came  under  their 
influence."  The  reading  of  Wordsworth  was  the  im- 
mediate occasion,  though  not  the  sole  cause,  of  a 
complete  change  in  his  way  of  thinking,  and  his  new 
way  of  thinking  led  him  to  life-long  associations  with 
other  great  men. 

We  cannot  tell  which  poet,  which  thinker,  will  do 
23 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

for  lis  what  Wordsworth  did  for  Mill.  But  while 
we  are  young  we  can  take  trial  excursions  into  lit- 
erature until  we  find  our  own.  And  when  we  do 
find  our  own,  the  treasure  that  is  most  precious  to 
our  souls,  we  shall  know  it,  and  know  it  the  better, 
perhaps,  if  we  have  tried  many  good  books  and  failed 
to  like  them. 

If  we  are  to  rely  so  frankly  upon  our  own  likings, 
a  word  of  caution  may  be  necessary  to  help  us  dis- 
tinguish liberty  of  choice  from  unreasonable  license. 
We  have  to  ask  not  only.  Does  this  book  interest  me  ? 
— but.  Does  this  book  appeal  to  the  best  tastes  and 
emotions  in  me?  Many  of  us,  by  no  means  bad 
human  beings,  are  so  constituted  that  if  our  eye 
meets  the  morbid,  the  coarse,  the  senselessly  horrible, 
we  are  fascinated,  we  are  indeed  interested.  But  it 
requires  only  the  most  simple  self-analysis  and  a 
little  honesty,  to  pull  ourselves  together  and  realize 
that  it  is  an  unworthy  side  of  us,  a  side  that  we  do 
not  care  to  show  our  friends,  which  is  being  held  at 
attention.  Not  that  we  need,  like  the  stupidest  of 
the  old  Puritans,  be  afraid  of  a  book  simply  because 
it  does  thrill  us  and  make  us  breathless.  For  every 
bad  book  which  holds  the  depraved  mind  guiltily 
alert,  a  good  book  can  be  found,  so  absorbing,  so 
compelling,  that  beside  it  the  bad  book  is  tame. 

I  once  had  a  pupil  whose  transparent  honesty  was 
only  one  of  his  many  lovable  qualities.  He  believed 
that  "  Literature  "  consisted  of  dull  books  written  by 
authors  who  died  long  ago.  The  ill-reasoned  con- 
clusion was  his  own,  but  I  found  that  the  raw  mate- 

24 


Of  Guides  and  Rules  for  Heading 

rials  of  his  error  lay  in  the  prudishness  of  one  of 
his  teachers.  When  I  told  him  that  "  Huckleberry 
Finn,"  by  a  very  live  author,  is  literature,  and  that 
a  short  story  by  Mrs.  Mary  Wilkins-Freeman  in  a 
current  magazine  seemed  to  me  literature  of  rare  ex- 
cellence, his  delight  so  aroused  his  wits  that  for  some 
time  after  that  my  part  of  the  lessons  consisted 
merely  in  meeting  his  enthusiasm  halfway. 

A  friend  once  asked  me  what  he  could  read  to 
improve  his  mind.  In  the  pride  of  a  little  supe- 
rior wisdom,  I  loftily  recommended  Shakespeare. 
His  reply  was,  "  That  is  too  deep  for  me."  A  wiser 
counselor  than  I,  knowing  his  circumstances,  would 
not  have  tried  to  cultivate  a  sprouting  ambition  with 
quite  so  perfect  an  intellectual  instrument.  But  I 
stuck  to  my  advice,  and  shortly  after  I  had  oppor- 
tunity to  prove  that  I  was,  if  not  wise,  at  least  on  the 
side  of  wisdom.  We  went  together  to  see  "  Othello  " 
— from  gallery  seats.  After  that  my  friend  read 
the  play  and  another  that  was  bound  with  it. 

Shakespeare  is  deep,  forsooth.  Hamlet's  soliloquy 
in  the  fourth  act : 

How  all  occasions  do  inform  against  me, 

is  so  profound  that  it  is  darkened  by  its  very  depth. 
But  the  play  "  Hamlet "  is  a  stirring  melodrama 
that  keeps  the  "  gallery  gods  "  leaning  forward  in 
their  seats.  The  larger  part  of  literature  is  by  dead 
authors,  because  the  "  great  majority  "  of  the  race  is 
dead  and  includes  its  proportionate  number  of  poets 
and  prophets.    Some  great  books  are  dull  except  to  a 

25 


A  Ouide  to  Reading 

comparatively  few  minds  in  certain  moods.  But 
most  dull  books  by  old  writers  have  been  forgotten; 
our  ancestors  saved  us  the  trouble  of  rejecting  them. 
Most  books  that  have  survived  are  triumphantly  alive 
in  all  senses.  The  vitality  of  a  book  that  is  just 
bom  may  be  brief  as  a  candle  flame.  The  old  book 
that  is  still  bright  has  proved  that  its  brightness  is 
the  true  luster  of  the  metal ;  else  we  should  not  know 
its  name. 


26 


CHAPTER   II 

THE  PURPOSE  OF  READING 

THE  question  why  we  read  books  is  one  of  those 
vast  questions  that  need  no  answer.  As  well 
ask,  Why  ought  we  to  be  good?  or,  Why  do  we 
believe  in  a  God?  The  whole  universe  of  wisdom 
answers.  To  attempt  an  answer  in  a  chapter  of  a 
book  would  be  like  turning  a  spyglass  for  a  moment 
toward  the  stars.  We  take  the  great  simple  things 
for  granted,  like  the  air  we  breathe.  In  a  country 
that  holds  popular  education  to  be  the  foundation  of 
all  its  liberties  and  fortunes,  we  do  not  find  many 
people  who  need  to  be  argued  into  the  belief  that 
the  reading  of  books  is  good  for  us ;  even  people  who 
do  not  read  much  acknowledge  vaguely  that  they 
ought  to  read  more. 

There  are,  to  be  sure,  men  of  rough  worldly  wis- 
dom, even  endowed  with  spiritual  insight,  who  dis- 
trust "  book  learning  "  and  fall  back  on  the  obvious 
truth  that  experience  of  life  is  the  great  teacher. 
Such  persons  are  in  a  measure  justified  in  their  con- 
viction by  the  number  of  unwise  human  beings  who 
have  read  much  but  to  no  purpose. 

The  bookful  blockhead,  ignorantly  read, 
With  loads  of  learned  lumber  in  his  head 

27 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

is  a  living  argument  against  mere  reading.  But  we 
can  meet  such  argument  by  pointing  out  that  the 
blockhead  who  cannot  learn  from  books  cannot  learn 
much  from  life,  either.  That  sometimes  useful  citi- 
zen whom  it  is  fashionable  to  call  a  Philistine,  and 
who  calls  himself  a  "  practical  man,"  often  has  under 
him  a  beginner  fresh  from  the  schools,  who  is  glib 
and  confident  in  repeating  bookish  theories,  but  is 
not  yet  skillful  in  applying  them.  If  the  practical 
man  is  thoughtless,  he  sniffs  at  theory  and  points 
to  his  clumsy  assistant  as  proof  of  the  uselessness  of 
what  is  to  be  got  from  books.  If  he  is  wise,  the 
practical  man  realizes  how  much  better  off  he  would 
be,  how  much  farther  his  hard  work  and  experience 
might  have  carried  him,  if  he  had  had  the  advan- 
tage of  bookish  training. 

Moreover,  the  hard-headed  skeptic,  self-made  and 
self-secure,  who  will  not  traffic  with  the  literature 
that  touches  his  life  work,  is  seldom  so  confined  to 
his  own  little  shop  that  he  will  not,  for  recreation, 
take  holiday  tours  into  the  literature  of  other  men's 
lives  and  labors.  The  man  who  does  not  like  to  read 
any  books  is,  I  am  confident,  seldom  found,  and  at 
the  risk  of  slandering  a  patriot,  I  will  express  the 
doubt  whether  he  is  a  good  citizen. 

Honest  he  may  be,  but  certainly  not  wise.  The 
human  race  for  thousands  of  years  has  been  writing 
its  experiences,  telling  how  it  has  met  our  everlast- 
ing problems,  how  it  has  struggled  with  darkness 
and  rejoiced  in  light.  What  fools  we  should  be  to 
try  to  live  our  lives  without  the  guidance  and  inspi- 

28 


The  Purpose  of  Eeading 

ration  of  the  generations  that  have  gone  before,  with- 
out the  joy,  encouragement,  and  sympathy  that  the 
best  imaginations  of  our  generation  are  distilling 
into  words.  For  literature  is  simply  life  selected 
and  condensed  into  books.  In  a  few  hours  we  can 
follow  all  that  is  recorded  of  the  life  of  Jesus — the 
best  that  He  did  in  years  of  teaching  and  suffering 
all  ours  for  a  day  of  reading,  and  the  more  deeply 
ours  for  a  lifetime  of  reading  and  meditation! 

If  the  expression  of  life  in  words  is  strong  and 
beautiful  and  true  it  outlives  empires,  like  the  oldest 
books  of  the  Old  Testament.  If  it  is  weak  or  trivial 
or  untrue,  it  is  forgotten  like  most  of  the  "  stories  " 
in  yesterday's  newspaper,  like  most  of  the  novels  of 
last  year.  The  expression  of  truth,  the  transmission 
of  knowledge  and  emotions  between  man  and  man 
from  generation  to  generation,  this  is  the  purpose  of 
literature.  !N'ot  to  read  books  is  like  being  shut  up 
in  a  dungeon  while  life  rushes  by  outside. 

I  happen  to  be  writing  in  Christmas  week,  and  I 
have  read  for  the  tenth  time  "  A  Christmas  Carol," 
by  Dickens,  that  amazing  allegory  in  which  the  hard, 
bitter  facts  of  life  are  involved  in  a  beautiful  myth, 
that  wizard's  caldron  in  which  humor  bubbles  and 
from  which  rise  phantom  figures  of  religion  and 
poetry.  Can  anyone  doubt  that  if  this  story  were 
read  by  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the  world, 
Christmas  would  be  a  happier  time  and  the  feelings 
of  the  race  elevated  and  strengthened?  The  story 
has  power  enough  to  defeat  armies,  to  make  revolu- 
tions in  the  faith  of  men,  and  turn  the  cold  markets 

29 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

of  the  world  into  festival  scenes  of  charity.  If  you 
know  any  mean  person,  you  may  be  sure  that  he 
has  not  read  "  A  Christmas  Carol,"  or  that  he  read 
it  long  ago  and  has  forgotten  it.  I  know  there  are 
persons  who  pretend  that  the  sentimentality  of  Dick- 
ens destroys  their  interest  in  him.  I  once  took  a 
course  with  an  overrefined,  imperfectly  educated  pro- 
fessor of  literature,  who  advised  me  that  in  time  I 
should  outgrow  my  liking  for  Dickens.  It  was  only 
his  way  of  recommending  to  me  a  kind  of  fiction 
that  I  had  not  learned  to  like.  In  time  I  did  learn 
to  like  it,  but  I  did  not  outgrow  Dickens.  A  person 
who  can  read  "  A  Christmas  Carol  "  aloud  to  the  end 
and  keep  his  voice  steady  is,  I  suspect,  not  a  safe 
person  to  trust  with  one's  purse  or  one's  honor. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  argue  about  the  value  of 
literature  or  even  to  define  it.  One  way  of  bring- 
ing ourselves  to  realize  vividly  what  literature  can 
do  for  us  is  to  enter  the  libraries  of  great  men  and 
see  what  books  have  done  for  the  acknowledged  lead- 
ers of  our  race. 

You  will  recall  John  Stuart  Mill's  experience  in 
reading  Wordsworth.  Mill  was  a  man  of  letters  as 
well  as  a  scientific  economist  and  philosopher,  and 
we  expect  to  find  that  men  of  letters  have  been  nour- 
ished on  literature;  reading  must  necessarily  have 
been  a  large  part  of  their  professional  preparation. 
The  examples  of  men  of  action  who  have  been  molded 
and  inspired  by  books  will  perhaps  be  more  helpful 
to  remember;  for  most  of  us  are  not  to  be  writers 
or  to  engage  in  purely  intellectual  work;  our  ambi- 

30 


T  ■>     »■>-)• 


DICKENS 


The  Purpose  of  Reading 

tions  point  to  a  thousand  different  careers  in  the 
world  of  action, 

Lincoln  was  not  primarily  a  man  of  letters,  al- 
though he  wrote  noble  prose  on  occasion,  and  the  art 
of  expression  was  important,  perhaps  indispensable, 
in  his  political  success.  He  read  deeply  in  the  law 
and  in  books  on  public  questions.  For  general  lit- 
erature he  had  little  time,  either  during  his  early 
struggles  or  after  his  public  life  began,  and  his  auto- 
biographical memorandum  contains  the  significant 
words :  "  Education  defective."  But  these  more  sig- 
nificant words  are  found  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote 
to  Hackett,  the  player :  "  Some  of  Shakespeare's  plays 
I  have  never  read,  while  others  I  have  gone  over 
perhaps  as  frequently  as  any  unprofessional  reader. 
Among  the  latter  are  '  Lear,'  '  Richard  III,'  '  Henry 
VIII,'  '  Hamlet,"  and,  especially,  '  Macbeth.'  " 

If  he  had  not  read  these  masterpieces,  no  doubt  he 
would  have  become  President  just  the  same  and 
guided  the  country  through  its  terrible  difiiculties; 
but  we  may  be  fairly  sure  that  the  high  philosophy 
by  which  he  lifted  the  political  differences  of  his  day 
above  partisan  quarrels,  the  command  of  words 
which  gives  his  letters  and  speeches  literary  perma- 
nence apart  from  their  biographical  interest,  the 
poetic  exaltation  of  the  Gettysburg  Address,  these 
higher  qualities  of  genius,  beyond  the  endowment  of 
any  native  wit,  came  to  Lincoln  in  some  part  from 
the  reading  of  books.  It  is  important  to  note  that 
he  followed  Franklin's  advice  to  read  much  but  not 
too  many  books;  the  list  of  books  mentioned  in  the 

31 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

biographical  records  of  Lincoln  is  not  long.  But  he 
went  over  those  half  dozen  plays  "  frequently."  We 
should  remember,  too,  that  he  based  his  ideals  upon 
the  Bible  and  his  style  upon  the  King  James  Ver- 
sion.    His  writings  abound  in  biblical  phrases. 

We  are  accustomed  to  regard  Lincoln  as  a  thinker. 
His  right  arm  in  the  saddest  duty  of  his  life,  Gen- 
eral Grant,  was  a  man  of  deeds;  as  Lincoln  said  of 
him,  he  was  a  "  copious  worker  and  fighter,  but  a 
very  meager  writer  and  telegrapher."  In  his  "  Me- 
moirs," Grant  makes  a  modest  confession  about  his 
reading : 

"  There  is  a  fine  library  connected  with  the  Acad- 
emy [West  Point]  from  which  cadets  can  get  books 
to  read  in  their  quarters.  I  devoted  more  time  to 
these  than  to  books  relating  to  the  course  of  studies. 
Much  of  the  time,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  was  devoted 
to  novels,  but  not  those  of  a  trashy  sort.  I  read  all 
of  Bulwer's  then  published,  Cooper's,  Marryat's, 
Scott's,  Washington  Irving's  works.  Lever's,  and 
many  others  that  I  do  not  now  remember." 

Grant  was  not  a  shining  light  in  his  school  days, 
nor  indeed  in  his  life  until  the  Civil  War,  and  at 
first  sight  he  is  not  a  striking  example  of  a  great 
man  influenced  by  books.  Yet  who  can  deny  that 
the  fruit  of  that  early  reading  is  to  be  found  in  his 
"  Memoirs,"  in  which  a  man  of  action  unused  to 
writing  and  called  upon  to  narrate  great  events,  dis- 
covers an  easy  adequate  style  ?  There  is  a  dangerous 
kind  of  conjecture  in  which  many  biographers  in- 
dulge when  they  try  to  relate  logically  the  scattered 

32 


The  Purpose  of  Reading 

events  of  a  man's  life.  A  conjectured  relation  is 
set  down  as  a  proved  or  unquestioned  relation.  I 
shall  say  something  about  this  in  the  chapter  on 
biography,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  violate  my  own 
teachings.  But  we  may,  without  harm,  hazard  the 
suggestion,  which  is  only  a  suggestion,  that  some  of 
the  chivalry  of  Scott's  heroes  wove  itself  into  Grant's 
instincts  and  inspired  this  businesslike,  modern  gen- 
eral, in  the  days  when  politeness  has  lost  some  of  its 
flourish,  to  be  the  great  gentleman  he  was  at  Appo- 
mattox when  he  quietly  wrote  into  the  terms  of  the 
surrender  that  the  Confederate  officers  should  keep 
their  side  arms.  Stevenson's  account  of  the  episode 
in  his  essay  on  "  Gentlemen  "  is  heightened,  though 
not  above  the  dignity  of  the  facts,  certainly  not  to 
a  degree  that  is  untrue  to  the  facts  as  they  are  to 
be  read  in  Grant's  simple  narrative.  Since  I  have 
agreed  not  to  say  "  ought  to  read,"  I  will  only  ex- 
press the  hope  that  the  quotation  from  Stevenson 
will  lead  you  to  the  essay  and  to  the  volume  that 
contains  it. 

"  On  the  day  of  the  capitulation,  Lee  wore  his 
presentation  sword ;  it  was  the  first  thing  that  Grant 
observed,  and  from  that  moment  he  had  but  one 
thought:  how  to  avoid  taking  it.  A  man,  who 
should  perhaps  have  had  the  nature  of  an  angel, 
but  assuredly  not  the  special  virtues  of  a  gentleman, 
might  have  received  the  sword,  and  no  more  words 
about  it:  he  would  have  done  well  in  a  plain  way. 
One  who  wished  to  be  a  gentleman,  and  knew  not 
how,  might  have  received  and  returned  it :  he  would 

33 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

have  done  infamously  ill,  he  would  have  proved  him- 
self a  cad;  taking  the  stage  for  himself,  leaving  to 
his  adversary  confusion  of  countenance  and  the  un- 
graceful posture  of  a  man  condemned  to  offer  thanks. 
Grant,  without  a  word  said,  added  to  the  terms  this 
article :  '  All  officers  to  retain  their  side  arms  ' ;  and 
the  problem  was  solved  and  Lee  kept  his  sword,  and 
Grant  went  down  to  posterity,  not  perhaps  a  fine 
gentleman,  but  a  great  one." 

l^apoleon,  who  of  all  men  of  mighty  deeds  after 
Julius  Csesar  had  the  greatest  intellect,  was  a  tire- 
less reader,  and  since  he  needed  only  four  or  ^ve 
hours'  sleep  in  twenty-four  he  found  time  to  read 
in  the  midst  of  his  prodigious  activities.  ^Nowadays 
those  of  us  who  are  preparing  to  conquer  the  world 
are  taught  to  strengthen  ourselves  for  the  task  by 
getting  plenty  of  sleep.  INTapoleon's  devouring  eyes 
read  far  into  the  night ;  when  he  was  in  the  field  his 
secretaries  forwarded  a  stream  of  books  to  his  head- 
quarters; and  if  he  was  left  without  a  new  volume 
to  begin,  some  underling  had  to  bear  his  imperial 
displeasure.  ISTo  wonder  that  his  brain  contained  so 
many  ideas  that,  as  the  sharp-tongued  poet,  Heine, 
said,  one  of  his  lesser  thoughts  would  keep  all  the 
scholars  and  professors  in  Germany  busy  all  their 
lives  making  commentaries  on  it. 

In  Franklin's  "  Autobiography  "  we  have  an  un- 
usually clear  statement  of  the  debt  of  a  man  of  affairs 
to  literature :  "  From  a  child  I  was  fond  of  reading, 
and  all  the  little  money  that  came  into  my  hands 
was  ever  laid  out  in  books.     Pleased  with  the  '  Pil- 

34 


The  Purpose  of  Heading 

grim's  Progress/  my  first  collection  was  of  John 
Bunjan's  works  in  separate  little  volumes.  .  .  .  My 
father's  little  library  consisted  chiefly  of  books  in 
polemic  divinity,  most  of  which  I  read,  and  have 
since  often  regretted  that,  at  a  time  when  I  had  such 
a  thirst  for  knowledge,  more  proper  books  had  not 
fallen  in  my  way,  since  it  was  now  resolved  that  I 
should  not  be  a  clergyman.  '  Plutarch's  Lives ' 
there  was  in  which  I  read  abundantly,  and  I  still 
think  that  time  spent  to  great  advantage.  There 
was  also  a  book  of  De  Foe's,  called  an  ^  Essay  on 
Projects,'  and  another  of  Dr.  Mather's,  called  ^  Es- 
says to  do  Good,'  which  perhaps  gave  me  a  turn  of 
thinking  that  had  an  influence  on  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal future  events  of  my  life." 

It  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  the  most  versatile 
of  versatile  Americans  read  De  Foe's  "  Essay  on 
Projects,"  which  contains  practical  suggestions  on  a 
score  of  subjects-,  from  banking  and  insurance  to 
national  academies.  In  Cotton  Mather's  "  Essays  to 
do  Good  "  is  the  germ  perhaps  of  the  sensible  moral- 
ity of  Franklin's  "  Poor  Kichard."  The  story  of  how 
Franklin  gave  his  nights  to  the  study  of  Addison  and 
by  imitating  the  Spectator  papers  taught  himself  to 
write,  is  the  best  of  lessons  in  self-cultivation  in 
English.  The  "  Autobiography  "  is  proof  of  how 
well  he  learned,  not  Addison's  style,  which  was  suited 
to  Joseph  Addison  and  not  to  Benjamin  Franklin, 
but  a  clear,  firm  manner  of  writing.  In  Franklin's 
case  we  can  see  not  only  what  he  owed  to  books,  but 
how  one  side  of  his  fine,  responsive  mind  was  starved 

35 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

because,  as  he  put  it,  more  proper  books  did  not  fall 
in  his  way.  The  blind  side  of  Franklin's  great  in- 
tellect was  his  lack  of  religious  imagination.  This 
defect  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  forbidding  nature 
of  the  religious  books  in  his  father's  library.  Re- 
pelled by  the  dull  discourses,  the  young  man  missed 
the  religious  exaltation  and  poetic  mysticism  which 
the  N^ew  England  divines  concealed  in  their  polemic 
argument.  Franklin's  liking  for  Bunyan  and  his 
confession  that  his  father's  discouragement  kept  him 
from  being  a  poet,  "  most  probably,"  he  says,  "  a 
very  bad  one,"  show  that  he  would  have  responded 
to  the  right  kind  of  religious  literature,  and  not  have 
remained  all  his  life  such  a  complacent  rationalist. 

If  it  is  clear  that  the  purpose  of  reading  is  to  put 
ourselves  in  communication  with  the  best  minds  of 
our  race,  we  need  go  no  farther  for  a  definition 
of  "  good  reading."  Whatever  human  beings  have 
said  well  in  words  is  literature,  whether  it  be 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  or  a  love  story. 
Reading  consists  in  nothing  more  than  in  tak- 
ing one  of  the  volumes  in  which  somebody  has 
said  something  well,  opening  it  on  one's  knee,  and 
beginning. 

We  take  it  for  granted,  then,  that  we  know  why 
we  read.  We  shall  presently  discuss  some  books 
which  we  shall  like  to  read.  But  before  we  come  to 
an  examination  of  certain  kinds  of  literature  and 
certain  of  its  great  qualities,  we  may  ask  one  further 
question:  How  shall  we  read?  One  answer  is  that 
we  should  read  with  as  much  of  ourselves  as  a  book 

36 


The  Purpose  of  Reading 

warrants,  with  the  part  of  ourselves  that  a  book  de- 
mands.    Mrs.  Browning  says: 

We  get  no  good 
By  being  ungenerous,  even  to  a  book, 
And  calculating  profits — so  much  help 
By  so  much  reading.     It  is  rather  when 
We  gloriously  forget  ourselves,  and  plunge 
Soul-forward,  headlong,  into  a  book's  profound. 
Impassioned  for  its  beauty,  and  salt  of  truth — 
'Tis  then  we  get  the  right  good  from  a  book. 

We  sometimes  know  exactly  what  we  wish  to  get 
from  a  book,  especially  if  it  is  a  volume  of  infor- 
mation on  a  definite  subject.  But  the  great  book  is 
full  of  treasures  that  one  does,  not  deliberately  seek, 
and  which  indeed  one  may  miss  altogether  on  the 
first  journey  through.  It  is  almost  nonsensical  to 
say :  Eead  Macaulay  for  clearness,  Carlyle  for  power, 
Thackeray  for  ease.  Literary  excellence  is  not  sepa- 
rated and  bottled  up  in  any  such  drug-shop  array. 
If  Macaulay  is  a  master  of  clearness  it  is  because 
he  is  much  else  besides.  Unless  we  read  a  man  for 
all  there  is  in  him,  we  get  very  little,  we  meet,  not 
a  living  human  being,  not  a  vital  book,  but  some- 
thing dead,  dismembered,  disorganized.  We  do  not 
read  Thackeray  for  ease ;  we  read  him  for  Thackeray 
and  enjoy  his  ease  by  the  way. 

We  must  read  a  book  for  all  there  is  in  it  or  we 
shall  get  little  or  nothing.  To  be  masters  of  books 
we  must  have  learned  to  let  books  master  us.  This 
is  true  of  books  that  we  are  required  to  read,  such 
as  text-books,  and  of  those  we  read  voluntarily  and 

37 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

at  leisure.  The  law  of  reading  is  to  give  a  book  its 
due  and  a  little  more.  The  art  of  reading  is  to 
know  how  to  apply  this  law.  For  there  is  an  art  of 
reading,  for  each  of  us  to  learn  for  himself,  a  pri- 
vate way  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  books. 

Macaulay,  whose  mind  was  never  hurried  nor  con- 
fused, learned  to  read  very  rapidly,  to  absorb  a 
page  at  a  glance.  A  distinguished  professor,  who 
has  spent  his  life  in  the  most  minutely  technical 
scholarship,  surprised  us  one  day  by  commending 
to  his  classes  the  fine  art  of  "  skipping."  Many 
good  books,  including  some  most  meritorious  "  three- 
decker  "  novels,  have  their  profitless  pages,  and  it  is 
useful  to  know  by  a  kind  of  practiced  instinct  where 
to  pause  and  reread  and  where  to  run  lightly  and 
rapidly  over  the  page.  It  is  a  useful  accomplish- 
ment not  only  in  the  reading  of  fiction,  but  in  the 
business  of  life,  to  the  man  of  affairs  who  must  get 
the  gist  of  a  mass  of  written  matter,  and  to  the  stu- 
dent of  any  special  subject. 

Usually,  of  course,  a  book  that  is  worth  reading 
at  all  is  worth  reading  carefully.  Thoroughness  of 
reading  is  the  first  thing  to  preach  and  to  practice, 
and  it  is  perhaps  dangerous  to  suggest  to  a  beginner 
that  any  book  should  be  skimmed.  The  suggestion 
will  serve  its  purpose  if  it  indicates  that  there  are 
ways  to  read,  that  practice  in  reading  is  like  prac- 
tice in  anything  else;  the  more  one  does,  and  the 
more  intelligently  one  does  it,  the  farther  and  more 
easily  one  can  go.  In  the  best  reading — that  is,  the 
most   thoughtful    reading   of   the    most    thoughtful 

38 


The  Purpose  of  Reading 

books,  attention  is  necessary.  It  is  even  necessary 
that  we  should  read  some  works,  some  passages,  so 
often  and  with  such  close  application  that  we  com- 
mit them  to  memory.  It  is  said  that  the  habit  of 
learning  pieces  by  heart  is  not  so  prevalent  as  it 
used  to  be.  I  hope  that  this  is  not  so.  What !  have 
you  no  poems  by  heart,  no  great  songs,  no  verses 
from  the  Bible,  no  speeches  from  Shakespeare  ?  Then 
you  have  not  begun  to  read,  you  have  not  learned 
how  to  read. 

We  have  said  enough,  perhaps,  of  the  theories  of 
reading.  The  one  lesson  that  seems  most  obvious  is 
that  we  must  come  close  to  literature.  Therefore  we 
shall  pause  no  longer  on  general  considerations,  but 
enter  at  once  the  library  where  the  living  books  are 
ranged  upon  the  shelves. 


39 


CHAPTEE   III 

THE  READING  OF  FICTION 

/^^UR  reason  for  considering  prose  fiction  before 
^^^  the  other  departments  of  literature  is  not  that 
fiction  is  of  greatest  importance,  but  that  it  is  the 
branch  of  literature  most  widely  known  and  enjoyed. 
Pretend  as  we  may  to  prefer  poetry  and  "  solid 
books''  (as  if  good  fiction  lacked  solidity!)  most  of 
us  have  read  more  novels  than  histories,  more  short 
stories  than  poems.  The  good  old  Quaker  who  wrote 
a  dull  history  of  IsTantucket  could  not  under- 
stand why  the  young  people  preferred  novels  to  his 
veracious  chronicle;  which  was  the  same  as  saying 
that  he  did  not  understand  young  people,  or  old  peo- 
ple, either.  Since  the  beginning  of  recorded  human 
history  the  world  has  gathered  eagerly  about  the 
knees  of  its  story  tellers,  and  to  the  end  of  the  race 
it  will  continue  to  applaud  and  honor  the  skillful  in- 
ventor of  fiction. 

There  was  a  time  when  preachers  and  teachers,  at 
least  those  of  the  English-speaking  nations,  had  a 
somber  view  of  life  and  looked  with  distrust  on 
pleasant  arts ;  and  no  doubt  they  were  right  in  hold- 
ing that  if  stories  take  our  thoughts  off  the  great 
realities,  we  cannot  afford  to  abandon  our  minds  to 

40 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

such  toys  and  trivial  inventions.  But  the  severe 
moralists  never  made  out  a  good  case  against  the 
arts ;  they  could  not  prove  that  joy  and  laughter  and 
light  entertainment  interfered  with  high  thinking 
and  right  living;  and  in  time  they  rediscovered, 
what  other  wise  men  had  never  forgotten,  that  art  is 
good  for  the  soul.  In  the  past  century  the  novel  has 
taken  all  knowledge  for  its  province  and  has  allied 
itself  to  the  labors  of  prophets,  preachers,  and  edu- 
cators. The  philosopher  finds  that  some  of  the  great 
speculative  minds  have  uttered  their  thoughts  in  the 
form  of  artistic  fiction.  The  true  scholar  no  longer 
confines  himself  to  annotating  the  fictions  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  and  the  established  classics  of 
his  race.  He  sees  in  the  best  art  of  his  contempora- 
ries the  same  effort  of  the  human  soul  to  express 
itself  which  informed  the  ancient  masterpieces. 

Jane  Austen,  whose  delicate  novels  inspired 
stronger  writers  than  she,  who  by  her  gentleness  and 
truth  influenced  creative  powers  greater  than  her 
own,  whimsically  recognized  and  perhaps  helped  to 
remove  the  pedantic  prejudice  against  fiction.  The 
following  passage  from  "  Northanger  Abbey "  will 
give  a  taste  of  that  delicious  book.  It  is  a  quiet 
satire  on  the  absurdly  romantic  such  as  is  still  manu- 
factured and  sold  by  the  million  copies  to  readers 
who,  one  may  suppose,  have  not  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  read  Jane  Austen. 

The  heroines  of  "  ^N^orthanger  Abbey,"  Catherine 
and  Isabella,  "  shut  themselves  up  to  read  novels  to- 
gether.    Yes,  novels;  for  I  will  not  adopt  that  un- 

41 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

generous  and  impolitic  custom,  so  common  with 
novel  writers,  of  degrading,  by  their  contemptuous 
censure,  the  very  performances  to  the  number  of 
which  they  are  themselves  adding;  joining  with  their 
greatest  enemies  in  bestowing  the  harshest  epithets 
on  such  works,  and  scarcely  ever  permitting  them 
to  be  read  by  their  own  heroine,  who,  if  she  acci- 
dentally take  up  a  novel,  is  sure  to  turn  over  its  in- 
sipid pages  with  disgust.  Alas!  if  the  heroine  of 
one  novel  be  not  patronized  by  the  heroine  of  an- 
other, from  whom  can  she  expect  protection  and  re- 
gard? I  cannot  approve  of  it.  Let  us  leave  it  to 
the  reviewers  to  abuse  such  effusions  of  fancy  at 
their  leisure,  and  over  every  new  novel  to  talk  in 
threadbare  strains  of  the  trash  with  which  the  press 
now  groans.  Let  us  not  desert  one  another;  we  are 
an  injured  body.  Although  our  productions  have 
afforded  more  extensive  and  unaffected  pleasure  than 
those  of  any  other  literary  corporation  in  the  world, 
no  species  of  composition  has  been  so  much  decried. 
From  pride,  ignorance,  or  fashion,  our  foes  are 
almost  as  many  as  our  readers;  and  while  the  abili- 
ties of  the  nine-hundredth  abridger  of  the  '  History 
of  England,'  or  of  the  man  who  collects  and  pub- 
lishes in  a  volume  some  dozen  lines  of  Milton,  Pope, 
and  Prior,  with  a  paper  from  the  Spectator,  and  a 
chapter  from  Sterne,  are  eulogized  by  a  thousand 
pens,  there  seems  almost  a  general  wish  of  de- 
crying the  capacity  and  undervaluing  the  labor  of 
the  novelist,  and  of  slighting  the  performances  which 
have  only  genius,  wit,  and  taste  to  recommend  them. 

42 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

*  I  am  no  novel  reader ;  I  seldom  look  into  novels ; 
do  not  imagine  that  I  often  read  novels ;  it  is  really 
very  well  for  a  novel.'     Such  is  the  common  cant. 

*  And  what  are  you  reading,  Miss  ? '     *  Oh,  it 

is  only  a  novel ! '  replies  the  young  lady ;  while  she 
lays  down  her  book  with  affected  indifference,  or 
momentary  shame.  ^  It  is  only  ''  Cecilia,"  or  "  Ca- 
milla,''  or  "  Belinda,"  '  or,  in  short,  only  some  work 
in  which  the  greatest  powers  of  the  mind  are  dis- 
played, in  which  the  most  thorough  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  the  happiest  delineation  of  its  varie- 
ties, the  liveliest  effusions  of  wit  and  humor,  are 
conveyed  to  the  world  in  the  best  chosen  language." 

Since  that  was  written  the  novel  has  overridden 
its  detractors  by  sheer  bulk  and  power.  The  great- 
est man  in  Kussia,  Tolstoi,  is,  or  was,  a  novelist. 
The  greatest  poet  and  thinker  alive  but  yesterday  in 
England,  George  Meredith,  was  a  novelist.  Of  the 
two  wisest  living  writers  in  America,  one,  Mr.  Will- 
iam Dean  Howells,  is  a  novelist,  and  the  other,  Mark 
Twain,  whom  one  hardly  knows  how  to  rank  or  label, 
has  done  a  part  of  his  best  writing  in  the  form  of 
fiction.  We  no  longer  question  the  power  and  dig- 
nity of  the  novel.  Our  only  concern  is  to  discrimi- 
nate good  stories  from  bad  and  get  the  greatest  de- 
light and  profit  from  the  good. 

To  bring  our  discussion  to  a  vital  example,  let  ua 
consider  Thackeray's  "  Henry  Esmond,"  an  all  but 
perfect  fiction,  in  which  every  element  of  excellent 
narrative  is  present. 

The  first  element  is  plot.  A  story  must  begin  in 
43 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

an  interesting  set  of  circumstances  and  arrive  by  a 
series  of  events  to  a  conclusion  that  satisfies.  The 
plot  of  "  Esmond  "  is  unusually  well  made,  and  it  is 
composed  of  rich  matter.  From  the  first  chapter  in 
which  Henry  is  introduced  to  us  as  "  no  servant, 
though  a  dependent,  no  relative,  though  he  bore 
the  name  and  inherited  the  blood  of  the  house  " — 
a  youth  with  a  mystery — on  through  the  schemes  for 
the  restoration  of  the  Stuart  King,  through  Esmond's 
unsuccessful  rivalry  with  the  other  suitors  of 
Beatrice,  to  the  end  of  the  high  intrigues  of  politics 
and  the  quiet  conclusion  of  Esmond's  career,  the  story 
moves  steadily  with  well-mannered  leisure.  It  takes 
its  own  time,  but  it  takes  the  right  time,  slow  when 
events  are  preparing,  rapid  and  flashing  when  events 
come  to  a  crisis.  The  great  crisis,  when  Esmond 
overtakes  the  prince  at  Castlewood,  breaks  his  sword 
and  renounces  both  allegiance  to  the  Stuarts  and 
his  own  birthright,  is  one  of  the  supreme  dramatic 
scenes  in  literature.  There  Thackeray  matches,  even 
excels,  Scott  and  Dumas.  And  such  is  the  variety 
of  his  power  that  on  other  pages  he  writes  brilliant 
and  witty  comedy  surpassed  only  by  the  lighter  plays 
of  Shakespeare,  on  yet  other  pages  he  gives  compact^ 
lucid  summary  of  events,  the  skill  of  which  an  his- 
torian might  envy,  and  again  he  writes  pages  of  com- 
ment on  human  character  which  equal  the  best  pages 
of  Esmond's  friend,  "  the  famous  Mr.  Joseph  Addi- 
son." 

The   actors   in  these  events   are   as   distinct   and 
memorable  as  any  in  history  or  as  any  in  life.     It 

44 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

would  be  impossible  for  a  reader  not  well  acquainted 
with  the  age  of  Queen  Anne  to  tell  which  of  the 
personages  in  the  book  once  moved  in  the  flesh  and 
which  Thackeray  created.  And  readers  who  have 
a  wide  acquaintance  with  the  world  and  have  known 
many  of  its  sons  and  daughters  will  find  in  their 
gallery  of  memories  no  brilliant  and  heartless  woman 
whom  they  seem  to  remember  with  more  sense  of 
intimacy  and  understanding  than  the  woman  who  led 
Mr.  Esmond  such  an  uncomfortable  dance  and  was 
the  means  of  defeating  Stuart  ambitions — ^Beatrice 
Esmond.  How  are  these  personages  of  a  fiction  made 
to  seem  so  lifelike?  Genius  only  can  answer,  and 
genius  is  often  unaware  by  just  what  devices  a  char- 
acter is  made  to  take  on  its  own  life  and  to  walk,  as 
it  were,  independent  of  the  author.  One  thing  is 
generally  true  of  characters  that  strike  us  as  real: 
they  talk  each  in  a  style  of  his  own,  and  yet  they  talk 
"like  folks.''  The  thing  that  they  do  may  be  far 
removed  from  anything  in  our  experience,  a  soldier 
may  be  talking  to  a  king,  Esmond  may  be  speaking 
in  noble  anger  to  the  prince;  we  feel  somehow  that 
the  words  on  the  page  have  in  them  the  sound  of  the 
human  voice,  that  a  man  placed  in  such  circumstances 
would  think  and  speak  as  the  novelist  makes  him 


In  a  good  novel  human  beings,  whose  emotions 
represent  and  idealize  our  own,  act  and  talk  amid 
intelligible  circumstances  and  entertaining  events. 
These  persons,  since  they  seem  real,  are  visible  to 
the  eye  of  fancy  and  the  events  happen  in  scenes — the 

45 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

divisions  of  a  drama  are  called  "  scenes  " — whicli 
strike  the  imagination  as  if  they  were  actually  strik- 
ing the  senses.  Each  person  is  recognizable  by  look 
and  gesture;  each  place  is  distinct  from  all  other 
places,  as  the  room  you  sit  in  and  the  street  beyond 
your  window  are  different  from  all  other  rooms  and 
all  other  highways  in  the  world.  Our  master  of 
story  telling  is  a  master  of  description.  An  unskill- 
ful author  tries  to  persuade  us  that  a  woman  is  beau- 
tiful by  merely  asserting  it,  and  his  assertion  makes 
no  impression  on  us  because  it  appeals  to  the  part 
of  our  brain  that  collects  information  and  not  the 
part  that  sees  pictures.  But  Thackeray  paints  Miss 
Beatrice  tripping  down  the  stairs  to  greet  Esmond, 
and  no  eye  that  has  seen  her  through  Thackeray's 
words  but  can  recall  the  portrait  at  will.  Further 
description  of  Beatrice  accompanies  the  action  all 
through  the  book  and  no  one  can  tell,  or  cares  to  tell, 
where  narration  pauses  and  description  begins. 

'No  one  can  tell,  either,  where  out  of  all  this 
emerges  that  quality  of  writing  called  style.  Manner 
of  expression  is  not  a  separable  shell  in  which  the 
stujff  is  contained  like  a  kernel.  The  manner  is  in 
the  substance.  Yet  there  is  a  charm  of  words  felt 
for  itself  which  seems  to  lie  above  and  around  the 
thing  conveyed.  In  other  books  Thackeray  loses  his 
plot,  and  sometimes  apparently  forgets  his  characters, 
and  yet  he  carries  the  reader  on  by  virtue  of  saying 
things  compellingly  and  invitingly.  "When,  as  in 
"  Esmond,"  the  order  of  action  is  so  satisfying  and 
the  people  are  so  interesting  to  watch  and  be  with, 

46 


i  •;.;; 


THACKERAY 


The  Eeading  of  Fiction 

and  in  addition  every  page  is  a  delight  to  the  ear, 
then  literary  excellence  is  complete. 

Here,  united  in  one  book,  are  the  elements  of 
fiction — plot,  character,  description  and  style.  And 
from  these  elements,  however  blended,  there  results 
a  total  value,  the  measure  of  a  book's  importance  in 
relation  to  the  other  things  in  life.  This  value  is 
essentially  moral,  not  so  much  because  literature  is 
under  peculiar  obligations  to  preach  and  teach  moral- 
ity as  because  it  is  part  of  life  and  the  fundamental 
things  in  life  are  moral  in  the  large  sense  of  the  word. 
It  is  as  impossible  to  think  of  a  fiction  which  shall 
be  neither  moral  nor  immoral  as  to  think  of  an  act 
which  shall  be,  in  the  modern  meaningless  word,  un- 
moral. Even  a  very  slight  fiction,  Hke  a  trivial  act, 
weighs  on  one  side  or  the  other.  All  the  best  of 
our  novelists  have  been  fully  conscious  of  their 
ethical  obligations  to  their  readers.  Having  thought 
deeply  enough  about  life  to  write  about  it,  they  could 
not  have  failed  to  think  deeply  about  their  profes- 
sional responsibility,  their  part  in  life. 

I  am  going  to  quote  at  length  a  passage  from 
Anthony  Trollope's  "Life  of  Thackeray"  in  the 
series  of  biographies  known  as  English  Men  of 
Letters.  The  young  reader  can  find  no  better  book 
about  the  novel  than  this  account  of  one  great  nov- 
elist by  another.  In  spite  of  a  current  idea  that  shop- 
talk  is  not  interesting,  a  thoughtful  craftsman  talking 
about  his  work  is  likely  to  be  at  his  best.  Moreover, 
Trollope's  judgments  on  the  moral  obligation  of  the 
novelist  are  especially  worthy  of  confidence,  for  he 

47 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

is  no  heavy-handed  preacher,  no  metaphysical  critic, 
but  a  broad-minded  humorist,  an  affectionate  student 
of  human  nature,  a  cheerful  workman  who  regarded 
his  own  books  in  a  modest  businesslike  way. 

"  I  have  said  previously,"  says  Trollope,  "  that  it 
is  the  business  of  a  novel  to  instruct  in  morals  and 
to  amuse.  I  will  go  further,  and  will  add,  having 
been  for  many  years  a  prolific  writer  of  novels  my- 
self, that  I  regard  him  who  can  put  himself  into 
close  communication  with  young  people  year  after 
year  without  making  some  attempt  to  do  them  good, 
as  a  very  sorry  fellow  indeed.  However  poor  your 
matter  may  be,  however  near  you  may  come  to  that 
^  foolishest  of  existing  mortals,'  as  Carlyle  presumes 
some  unfortunate  novelist  to  be,  still,  if  there  be 
those  who  read  your  works,  they  will  undoubtedly 
be  more  or  less  influenced  by  what  they  find  there. 
And  it  is  because  the  novelist  amuses  that  he  must 
be  influential.  The  sermon  too  often  has  no  such 
effect,  because  it  is  applied  with  the  declared  inten- 
tion of  having  it.  The  palpable  and  overt  dose  the 
child  rejects;  but  that  which  is  cunningly  insinuated 
by  the  aid  of  jam  or  honey  is  accepted  unconsciously, 
and  goes  on  upon  its  curative  mission.  So  it  is  with 
the  novel.  It  is  taken  because  of  its  jam  and  honey. 
But,  unlike  the  honest  and  simple  jam  and  honey  of 
the  household  cupboard,  it  is  never  unmixed  with 
physic.  There  will  be  the  dose  within  it,  either 
curative  or  poisonous.  The  girl  will  be  taught  mod- 
esty or  immodesty,  truth  or  falsehood;  the  lad  will 
be  taught  honor  or  dishonor,  simplicity  or  affecta- 

48 


The  Eeading  of  Fiction 

tion.     Without  the  lesson  the  amusement  will  not 
be  there.    There  are  novels  which  certainly  can  teach 
nothing;  but  then  neither  can  they  amuse  any  one. 
"  I  should  be  said  to  insist  absurdly  on  the  power 
of  my  own  fraternity  if  I  were  to  declare  that  the 
bulk  of  the  young  people  in  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  receive  their  moral  teaching  chiefly  from  the 
novels  they  read.     Mothers  would  no  doubt  think 
of  their  o^vn  sweet  teaching;  fathers  of  the  examples 
which  they  set;  and  schoolmasters  of  the  excellence 
of  their  instructions.     Happy  is  the  country  that 
has  such  mothers,  fathers,  and  schoolmasters!     But 
the  novelist  creeps  in  closer  than  the  schoolmaster, 
closer  than  the  father,  closer  almost  than  the  mother. 
He  is  the  chosen  guide,  the  tutor  whom  the  young 
pupil  chooses  for  herself.    She  retires  with  him,  sus- 
pecting no  lesson,  safe  against  rebuke,  throwing  her- 
self head  and  heart  into  the  narration  as  she  can 
hardly  do  into  her  task  work;  and  there  she  is  taught 
— how  she  shall  learn  to  love;  how  she  shall  receive 
the  lover  when  he  comes;  how  far  she  should  advance 
to  meet  the  joy;  why  she  should  be  reticent,  and  not 
throw  herself  at  once  into  this  new  delight.     It  is 
the  same  with  the  young  man,  though  he  would  be 
more  prone  even  than  she  to  reject  the  suspicion  of 
such  tutorship.     But  he,  too,  will  learn  either  to 
speak  the  truth,  or  to  lie;  and  will  receive  from  his 
novel  lessons  either  of  real  manliness,  or  of  that 
affected  apishness  and  tailor-begotten  demeanor  which 
too  many  professors  of  the  craft  give  out  as  their 
dearest  precepts, 

49 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

"  At  any  rate  the  close  intercourse  is  admitted. 
Where  is  the  house  now  from  which  novels  are 
tabooed?  Is  it  not  common  to  allow  them  almost 
indiscriminately,  so  that  young  and  old  each  chooses 
his  own  novel?  Shall  he,  then,  to  whom  this  close 
fellowship  is  allowed — this  inner  confidence — shall  he 
not  be  careful  what  words  he  uses,  and  what  thoughts 
he  expresses,  when  he  sits  in  council  with  his  young 
friend?  ...  A  novelist  has  two  modes  of  teach- 
ing— by  good  example  or  bad.  It  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed that  because  the  person  treated  of  be  evil, 
therefore  the  precept  will  be  evil.  If  so,  some  per- 
sonages with  whom  we  have  been  acquainted  from 
our  youth  upward  would  have  been  omitted  in  our 
early  lessons.  It  may  be  a  question  whether  the 
teaching  is  not  more  efficacious  which  comes  from 
an  evil  example.  What  story  was  ever  more  power- 
ful in  showing  the  beauty  of  feminine  reticence,  and 
the  horrors  of  feminine  evildoing,  than  the  fate  of 
Effie  Deans  [in  "The  Heart  of  Midlothian"  by 
Scott].  The  'Templar'  [in  Scott's  "Ivanhoe"] 
would  have  betrayed  a  woman  to  his  lust,  but  has 
not  encouraged  others  by  the  freedom  of  his  life. 
^  Varney  '  [in  Scott's  "  Kenil worth  "]  was  utterly 
bad — ^but  though  a  gay  courtier,  he  has  enticed  no 
others  to  go  the  way  he  went.  So  has  it  been  with 
Thackeray.  His  examples  have  generally  been  of 
that  kind — ^but  they  have  all  been  efficacious  in  their 
teaching  on  the  side  of  modesty  and  manliness,  truth, 
and  simplicity." 

To  return  to  the  elements  of  the  novel,  plot,  char- 
50 


The  Keading  of  Fiction 

acter,  description,  style,  if  we  think  of  a  score  of 
great  novels  that  have  had  many  readers  for  many 
years,  we  shall  see  that  some  novelists  are  blessed 
with  genius  for  one  element  more  than  for  another, 
or  that  they  have  chosen  to  put  their  energies  into 
one  or  the  other.  And  we  shall  see,  too,  that  few 
novels  are  perfect,  few  as  nearly  perfect  as  "  Es- 
mond,'' and  that  we  should  not  expect  them  to  be. 
All  that  we  need  demand  is  that  a  writer  give  us 
enough  of  something  to  make  the  reading  of  his  book 
worth  while. 

No  rules  that  have  so  far  been  laid  down  about 
the  requirements  of  fiction  are  final  or  from  the 
reader's  point  of  view  of  great  assistance.  Some  of  us 
have  made  up  our  minds  that  the  English  novel  is 
growing  more  shapely  and  well  constructed:  Mr. 
W.  D.  Howells,  for  instance,  by  precept  and  practice, 
and  some  other  novelists  and  critics  who  are  under 
the  influence  of  French  fiction,  insist  on  construc- 
tion and  form  and  simplicity  of  plot.  Then  in  spite 
of  all  "  tendencies  "  and  rules  of  fiction,  along  comes 
Mr.  William  De  Morgan  with  three  novels  which 
might  have  been  written  fifty  years  ago,  and  wins 
instantaneous  and  deserved  success  as  a  new  novelist 
— at  the  age  of  seventy.  His  plots  are  as  wayward 
and  leisurely  as  most  of  Thackeray's,  his  people  are 
human,  and  his  discursive  individual  style  is  as  fresh 
as  if  novelists  had  not  been  filling  the  world  with 
books  for  two  centuries.  "  Joseph  Yance  "  and  "Alice 
for  Short "  prove  how  inconsiderate  genius  is  of 
rules  made  by  critics  and  how  far  is  the  "  old-fash- 

51 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

ioned  "  novel  from  having  gone  stale  and  fallen  on 
evil  days. 

So  long  as  a  plot  has  vitality  of  some  kind,  truth 
to  life,  or  ingenuity,  or  dramatic  power,  it  makes 
no  difference  to  the  mere  reader  what  material  the 
novelist  chooses.  Twenty  years  ago  there  was  a 
strange  contest  between  realists  and  romanticists. 
The  realists,  or  as  they  sometimes  call  themselves, 
"  naturalists,"  take  the  simpler  facts  of  common  life 
and  weave  them  into  stories.  The  romanticist  selects 
from  highly  colored  epochs  of  history,  or  from  no- 
man's  land,  or  from  the  more  unusual  circumstances 
of  actual  life,  such  startling  adventures,  such  well- 
joined  incidents,  such  mysteries,  surprises,  and 
dramatic  revelations  as  we  do  not  meet  with  in 
ordinary  times  and  places.  Thackeray  is  a  roman- 
ticist in  "  Henry  Esmond,"  a  realist  in  "  Pendennis  " 
and  "  The  ;N"ewcomes."  Scott's  novels  are  romantic. 
Those  of  TroUope,  of  Mr.  Henry  James,  of  Mr. 
"W.  D.  Howells  are  realistic.  There  is  no  sharp  line 
between  the  two.  Dickens  found  extraordinary  ro- 
mance in  ordinary  London  streets,  which  he  knew 
with  journalistic  realism  to  the  last  brick  and  cobble- 
stone. In  "  Bleak  House,"  he  says,  he  "  purposely 
dwelt  upon  the  romantic  side  of  familiar  things." 
But,  though  he  may  have  considered  this  book  a 
special  quest  for  the  romantic  in  real  life,  it  does  not 
differ  in  the  kind  or  the  proportion  of  its  romanticism 
from  a  dozen  others  of  his  novels.  It  is  no  more  ro- 
mantic than  "  David  Copperfield  "  or  "  The  Old  Curi- 
osity Shop,"  no  less   romantic  than  the   historical 

62 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

fiction,  "A  Tale  of  Two  Cities."  His  imagination 
penetrated  life,  real  or  unreal,  familiar  or  remote, 
and  found  it  rich  with  plot  and  subplot;  he  touched 
the  slums  with  his  mythmaker's  wand,  and  in  obedi- 
ence to  his  touch  the  children  of  the  streets  and 
dark  tenements  became  heroes  of  strange  adventure, 
moving  through  mysteries  as  varied  and  wonderful 
as  fairyland. 

Because  Dickens  loved  human  beings  and  under- 
stood their  everyday  sorrow  and  happiness,  he 
wrought  into  the  great  fabric  of  his  plots  a  multitude 
of  people  as  real,  as  like  to  us  and  our  friends,  as 
can  be  found  in  the  work  of  the  most  thorough-going 
realist;  he  reflects,  too,  like  the  avowed  realist,  the 
social  and  political  problems  of  his  own  times.  He 
is  both  romanticist  and  realist.  So  also  are  his  con- 
temporaries, the  Bronte  sisters  and  Charles  Reade. 
And  their  greatest  successors  in  the  English  novel, 
Thomas  Hardy  and  George  Meredith,  are  equally 
masters  of  common  social  facts,  human  nature  in  its 
daily  aspects,  and  of  the  highly  colored,  the  pic- 
turesque, the  mystery,  the  surprise,  the  dramatic 
complexity  of  events. 

The  genius  of  English  fiction  in  most  of  its  power- 
ful exponents  has  this  dual  character  of  romance  and 
realism.  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  is  a  romantic  adventure ; 
its  scene  is  transported  far  away  from  human  life  to 
a  solitude  such  as  only  the  wanderer's  eye  has  looked 
upon;  the  reader  is  taken  bodily  into  another  world. 
Yet  Defoe  is  the  first  great  realist  in  English  prose 
fiction;  he  piles  detail  upon  detail,  gives  an  exact 

53 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

inventory  of  Crusoe's  possessions,  and  compels  belief 
in  the  story  as  in  a  chronicle  of  events  that  really 
happened. 

Later  in  the  eighteenth  century  appeared  Richard- 
son's "  Clarissa  Harlowe/'  a  vast  romantic  tragedy, 
which  held  the  attention  of  all  novel  readers  of  the 
time;  the  story  was  published  in  parts,  and  when 
it  was  learned  before  the  last  part  was  printed  that 
the  ending  was  to  be  tragic,  ladies  wrote  to  Richard- 
son begging  him  to  bring  his  heroine  out  of  her 
difficulties  and  allow  her  to  "  live  happily  ever  after." 
The  plot  of  this  novel  is  imposed  by  the  logic  of 
character  upon  the  facts  of  English  society;  the  plot 
is  not  realistic  or  even  probable  in  its  relations  to 
the  known  circumstances  of  the  civilization  in  which 
it  is  laid;  any  magistrate  could  have  rescued  Clarissa. 
But  everything  stands  aside  to  let  the  great  romance 
pass  by;  the  readers  of  the  time,  who  knew  better 
than  we  do  the  social  facts  surrounding  an  English 
girl,  did  not  question  the  probability  of  the  plot, 
because  they  accepted  the  character.  The  plot 
granted,  Richardson's  method  is  realistic.  We  know 
Clarissa's  daily  acts  and  circumstances;  we  have  a 
bulletin  of  her  feelings  every  hour.  No  modern 
psychological  novelist  ever  analyzed  the  workings  of 
a  human  mind  more  minutely,  with  greater  fidelity 
and  insight.  The  result  is  a  voluminous  diary  of 
eighteenth-century  manners  and  customs  and  senti- 
ments hung  upon  as  romantic  a  plot  as  was  ever 
devised. 

Midway  in  time  between  Richardson  and  Dickens 
54 


> 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

stands  the  king  of  romantics,  Scott,  and  he,  too,  is 
a  realist  in  his  depiction  of  Scottish  life  and  char- 
acter. In  "  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor  "  so  melodra- 
matic and  "  stagey  "  that  it  seems  to  be  set  behind 
footlights  and  played  to  music — a  familiar  opera  is- 
based  upon  it — there  is  one  character  that  Scott 
found  not  in  legend  or  history,  but  in  the  life  he 
knew,  Caleb  Balderstone.  Like  the  gravedigger  in 
"  Hamlet,"  he  is  a  link  between  unusual,  we  might 
fairly  say  unnatural,  events  and  common  humanity. 
In  many  of  Scott's  novels,  beside  the  strutting  heroes 
that  startle  the  world  in  high  astounding  terms, 
walk  the  soldiers,  servants,  parsons,  shepherds,  who 
by  their  presence  make  us  feel  that  it  is  the  firm 
earth  upon  which  the  action  moves. 

Argument  among  critics  as  to  the  nature  of  ro- 
mance and  realism  helps,  as  all  questions  of  definition 
may  help,  to  make  us  understand  the  relation  of  one 
novel  to  another  and  to  see  the  range  and  purpose 
of  fiction.  But  that  any  one  should  say  of  two  novels 
that  one  is  better  than  the  other,  simply  because  it 
is  more  realistic  or  more  romantic,  is  to  impose  a 
technicality  on  enjoyment  with  which,  enjoyment 
refuses  to  be  burdened.  Who  that  picks  up  a  novel 
for  the  pleasure  of  reading  it  cares  whether  it  is 
romance  or  realism?  So  long  as  it  has  vitality  of  its 
own  kind,  and  gives  us  enough  of  the  many  virtues 
which  a  novel  may  possess,  we  are  content  to  plunge 
into  it  and  ask  no  questions.  A  lily  is  not  a  rose; 
it  takes  no  great  wisdom  to  know  that ;  the  botanists 
will  tell  us  the  exact  difference,  and  the  gardener 

65 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

will  tell  us  how  they  grow;  but  if  botanist  or  horti- 
culturist tells  us  which  is  more  beautiful,  we  listen 
to  his  opinion  and  keep  our  own.  Mr.  Kipling's 
"Kim/'  or  Mr.  Howells's  "A  Modern  Instance"; 
'^  Far  from  the  Madding  Crowd/'  by  Thomas  Hardy, 
or  Scott's  "Ivanhoe";  Stevenson's  "Kidnapped,"  or 
Mark  Twain's  "  Huckleberry  Finn  " — which  of  these 
books  is  realistic  and  which  is  the  other  kind?  Sup- 
pose you  read  them  to  find  out.  In  the  midst  of  any 
one  of  them  you  will  have  forgotten  the  question, 
because  the  novelist  will  have  filled  your  whole  mind 
with  other — and  more  important — interests. 

A  good  novel  is  a  self-contained,  complete  world 
with  its  own  laws  and  inhabitants.  The  inhabitants 
and  laws  of  different  novels  resemble  each  other  in 
some  degree  or  we  should  not  be  able  to  understand 
them.  Great  books,  and  great  men,  have  common 
qualities,  and  yet  it  is  true,  in  large  measure,  that 
they  are  memorable  for  their  difference  from  other 
books  and  men.  This  suggests  why  histories  of  lit- 
erature and  analytical  studies  of  the  forms  of  lit- 
erature are  so  often  artificial  and  lifeless.  The  critic 
is  fond  of  grouping  books  and  authors  together,  of 
finding  points  of  resemblance,  of  marking  genius  with 
brands  and  labels.  In  some  histories  of  Elizabethan 
drama,  Shakespeare  is  neatly  placed  in  the  center  of 
a  rising  and  declining  "  school  of  playwrights."  He 
is  laid  out  like  the  best  specimen  of  a  collection  in 
a  glass  case.  Shakespeare  was  a  playwright;  no  doubt 
he  was  a  "  practical  "  one.  But  the  important  thing 
about  him  is  that  he  was  the  greatest  of  poets,  and 

56 


SCOTT 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

lie  is  not  at  ease  in  any  school  or  class  of  literary 
workmen.  He  is  inexplicably,  gigantically  different 
from  all  other  Elizabethan  dramatists,  and  if  he  is 
to  be  grouped  at  all,  his  fellows  are  the  few  greatest 
poets  of  the  world,  not  his  contemporaries  in  the  art, 
or  the  business,  of  playmaking,  the  best  of  whom  do 
not  reach  to  his  shoulder.  All  the  supreme  creative 
geniuses  are  difficult  to  classify.  They  work  in  con- 
ventional art  forms,  the  drama,  the  epic,  in  which 
scores  of  lesser  poets  have  worked;  but  the  greatest 
art  emerges  above  the  form.  When  rules  of  art  and 
sharp  characterizations  of  schools  of  art  fit  snugly 
on  the  shoulders  of  a  writer,  that  alone  is  sufficient 
to  prove  that  he  is  not  a  writer  of  the  highest  power. 
However  wisely  critics  and  philosophers  may  argue 
about  fiction  and  other  forms  of  art,  inexperienced 
readers  will  be  narrowing  their  outlook  if  they  make 
up  their  minds,  after  one  or  two  experiments  or  as 
a  result  of  a  critical  opinion  which  they  get  at  sec- 
ond hand,  that  there  are  certain  classes  of  stories  that 
they  do  not  like.  If  one  knows  that  Stevenson  is  a 
romanticist  and  happens  to  have  read  "  David  Bal- 
four "  and  failed  to  like  it,  it  is  foolish  to  rule  out 
the  romantic,  for  perhaps  Dumas  will  prove  better. 
Some  people  are  tired  beyond  recovery  of  historical 
novels,  because  so  many  bad  ones  have  been  urged 
upon  the  public  during  the  last  fifteen  years.  Some 
people  have  decided  that  they  do  not  like  stories  that 
end  unhappily.  This  seems  a  thoughtless  decision 
because  many  of  the  great  fictions  from  the  "  Iliad  " 
to  "  The  Mill  on  the  Floss  "  terminate  with  the  death 

57 


A  Guide  to  Eeadins: 


fc> 


of  the  principal  characters  and  sadness  for  the  char- 
acters that  survive.  When  we  hear  some  one  say, 
"  There  is  tragedy  enough  in  real  life,  I  want  some- 
thing pleasant  to  read,"  we  may  suggest  that  the 
great  tragedy  that  is  told  in  the  Gospels  has  brought 
more  lasting  joy  and  good  feeling  to  the  race  than 
any  other  story.  Not  to  make  so  high  an  argument, 
I  feel  that  I  could  give  to  any  person  who  pretends 
to  like  only  "  pleasant  "  fiction  a  half  dozen  tragic 
novels  that  would  capture  and  delight  this  sad  soul 
that  has  seen  enough  of  "  tragedy  in  real  life." 

Arguments  are  unnecessary,  for  fiction  itself  out- 
strips them  or  defeats  them  and  triumphs.  The 
public  is  tired,  we  say,  of  historical  romance,  and 
it  cannot  be  charmed  by  sad  stories  which  end  in 
death  and  disaster.  Yet  during  the  past  winter  one 
of  "  best  sellers  "  was  Miss  Mary  Johnston's  "  Lewis 
Eand."  This  is  an  historical  romance  laid  in  Jeffer- 
son's Virginia.  It  is  a  tragic  romance;  the  finest 
gentleman  is  killed,  the  titular  hero  goes  to  prison 
on  the  last  page,  a  ruin  of  ambitious  genius,  and  the 
heroine,  his  wife,  parts  from  us  at  the  end  to  enter, 
in  the  world  that  lies  just  beyond  the  covers  of  books, 
a  life  of  inevitable  sadness. 

Individual  vitality  is  what  makes  the  good  book. 
When  the  good  book  appears  we  like  to  classify  it 
and  examine  its  form  and  material,  but  its  vitality 
defies  us.  You  may  group  all  your  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances in  familiar  types,  and  in  thinking  of 
them  when  they  are  absent  you  may  assure  yourself 
that  they  fall  into  definite  intelligible  classes.     But 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

in  the  presence  of  any  one  of  them,  the  most  trans- 
parent and  simple,  you  recognize  the  mystery  of  a 
person,  a  power,  however  slight,  that  is  unlike  other 
powers,  a  vital  soul  that  baffles  analysis.  And  so  it 
is  with  books:  each  makes  its  effect  as  a  living  indi- 
vidual and  it  may  have  an  entirely  different  effect 
from  the  book  that  seems  nearest  like  it. 

Somebody  once  expressed  the  idea  that  he  did  not 
care  for  Dickens  because  so  many  of  his  characters 
are  low  persons  who  would  not  be  interesting  to 
associate  with  in  real  life;  and  other  readers  have 
expressed  the  same  idea,  either  sincerely  or  in 
thoughtless  repetition.  If  they  do  not  like  Dickens, 
it  is  probably  for  some  other  reason  than  that  Dick- 
ens portrays  "  common  "  people,  for  that  reason  is 
not  broad  enough  to  stand  on.  These  same  readers 
may  like  another  writer  whose  characters  are  as  low 
and  uncultivated  as  most  of  the  people  whom  Dickens 
loved.  If  such  a  writer  is  not  to  be  found  in  our 
libraries,  his  first  book  may  be  still  unpublished;  he 
may  walk  to-morrow  into  the  town  where  we  live, 
discover  the  humor  and  pathos  of  our  commonplace 
neighbors,  and  of  the  low  persons  whom  we  do  not 
acknowledge  as  neighbors.  And  ever  after  our  village 
will  be  a  shrine  for  tourists.  The  great  fiction  writer 
is  a  magician;  he  upsets  conventional  values  in  a  flash 
and  turns  lead  into  gold  in  spite  of  all  the  chemists. 
The  true  reader  of  fiction  will  be  a  believer  in  that 
miracle,  and  he  will  keep  his  mind  receptive  to  it 
in  every  form  in  which  it  manifests  itself. 


59 


CHAPTEK   lY 

THE  READING  OF  FICTION— (Continued) 

TN  discussing  the  question  of  plots  we  could  not 
■*■  keep  out  the  question  of  character,  which  we 
agreed  for  the  purposes  of  our  discussion  is  the  sec- 
ond element  of  fiction.  In  importance  it  is  the  first^ — 
the  indispensable  element.  What  is  fiction  for  ex- 
cept to  tell  us  about  human  beings  ?  I  cannot  believe 
what  somebody  said,  that  the  three  essentials  of 
stories  are  first  plot,  second  plot  and  third  plot.  In 
the  first  place,  that  sounds  too  clever  to  be  true  and 
in  the  second  place — it  is  not  true.  The  plot  is  the 
means  of  keeping  persons  in  action  so  that  we  can 
get  to  know  them.  In  this  "  naturalists  '^  and  "  real- 
ists "  find  a  good  argument,  for  they  put  their  em- 
phasis on  human  character.  They  say :  "  Here  we 
exhibit  you  and  your  friends  and  your  enemies. 
Plot?  We  are  telling  a  story.  Stories  are  all  about 
you.  But  we  have  not  forced  events  out  of  probable 
order  or  distorted  the  facts  of  life  beyond  recognition 
for  the  sake  of  an  exciting  situation.  We  draw  our 
fellow  men,  so  that  you  recognize  them  as  they  are. 
Even  as  they  are  in  their  homes  and  shops  and 
churches,  so  they  are  in  these  pages,  talking,  loving, 
hating,  bargaining,  intriguing,  dying.    We  select  the 

60 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

significant,  we  heighten  the  values  of  life;  but  we 
portray  life  essentially  as  it  is."  True  enough.  The 
realist  gives  us  "folks."  But  he  has  no  monopoly 
of  human  beings.  We  are  quite  as  well  acquainted 
with  Alice  who  wandered  in  Wonderland  and  went 
through  the  Looking  Glass  as  we  are  with  Mr.  David 
Copperfield  and  Miss  Maggie  Tulliver.  Peter  Pan 
(in  Mr.  J.  M.  Barrie's  play),  who  flew  in  the  face 
of  nature  and  refused  to  grow  up,  is  so  true  a  person 
that  all  the  children  recognized  him  at  once  and  old 
men  chuckled  and  remembered  him. 

The  English  novel  is  varied  and  abundant,  and 
its  characters,  collectively,  form  a  populous  de- 
mocracy. Everybody  is  in  it  somewhere  from  peasant 
to  king,  and  if  some  of  us  and  our  friends  have  been 
left  out,  new  novelists  are  at  hand  watching  every 
kind  and  grade  of  life  and  preparing  to  ^x  it  in  a 
living  page.  The  American  novel  is  not  yet  old 
and  broad  enough  to  have  captured  all  our  types  of 
men  and  women  and  recreated  them  in  fiction.  But 
a  good  beginning  has  been  made.  The  varied  voices 
of  the  American  country  town  are  heard  from  all 
corners  of  the  land,  but  so  far  most  of  them  have 
been  voices  of  short  compass,  incapable  of  sustained 
utterance.  We  still  depend  for  studies  of  American 
character  on  sketches  and  short  stories,  and  these 
in  the  mass  are  an  important  body  of  literature. 
]^ew  England,  Virginia,  California,  the  Middle  West, 
the  great  cities,  have  had  their  short-story  writers. 
The  novelists  are  still  on  the  way.  Our  national 
life  is  so  scattered  and  changing  that  the  novelist  has 

61 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

difficulty  in  keeping  a  group  of  Americans  together 
long  enough  to  plot  them  into  a  large  book.  In 
Europe  where  a  small  town  contains  every  kind  of 
society  the  novelist  finds  the  compact  social  stage 
all  set  and  characters  in  abundance.  Anthony  Trol- 
lope,  with  little  care  to  plot,  sets  society  to  turning 
in  the  quiet  eddy  of  a  small  cathedral  town  and  pres- 
ently we  are  looking  into  the  heart  of  England.  He 
introduces  the  same  people  into  novel  after  novel 
and  we  are  always  glad  to  see  them  again.  The 
success  of  his  many  novels  supports  the  contention 
that  characters  are  the  staff  of  fiction.  A  defect  of 
plot  is  easier  to  pardon  than  a  defect  in  character 
drawing. 

Untruth  to  human  nature,  violence  either  to  its 
waking  experiences  or  its  dreams,  destroys  a  book, 
destroys  the  living  world  it  represents  and  leaves  us 
holding  a  thing  of  ink  and  paper.  The  other  day 
I  was  reading  a  novel  which  has  multiplied  itself 
over  the  land  by  force  of  printing  presses  and  sensa- 
tional advertising.  It  is  a  story  about  modern  people 
of  an  undistinguished  but  potentially  interesting 
kind;  the  heroine  is,  if  I  remember  right,  a  con- 
fidential secretary  to  a  business  man.  The  author 
makes  her  say  something  like  this  to  her  lover : 

"  Ere  I  knew  you,  there  had  come  into  my  life  but 
few  pleasures  and  diversions;  I  had  been  like  a  bird 
shut  up  in  a  cage;  and  you  set  me  free.  Yet  it  was 
not  that  alone  which  attracted  me  to  you.  Grateful 
as  I  was,  I  was  charmed,  too,  by  your  conversation 
which  was  so  totally  different  than  (sic)  anything 

62 


The  Beading  of  Fiction 

I  had  known  heretofore.  You  saved  me  from  the 
wretched  monotony  of  commonplace  existence  and 
took  me  into  a  new  world,  and  my  gratitude  for  that 
blossomed  into  love  " ;  and  so  on. 

The  only  thing  in  that  which  sounds  like  human 
speech  is  the  blunder  in  the  use  of  "  than,"  which  I 
suspect  is  an  unintentional  blunder  on  the  part  of 
the  author.  The  speech  is  no  more  appropriate  to 
the  given  character  in  the  given  place  than  a  sentence 
out  of  Macaulay's  essays.  The  most  ingenious  plot- 
ting could  not  entice  a  discriminating  reader  beyond 
that  dead  line  of  empty  words,  for  they  are  proof 
enough  that  the  author  himself  does  not  know  his 
heroine's  character.  To  be  sure,  dialogue  in  novels 
cannot  be  "  natural  as  life,"  for  actual  conversation 
taken  down  word  for  word  is  diffuse  and  hard  to 
read.  The  conversations  in  books  must  sound  nat- 
ural, appropriate  to  the  place,  the  time,  and  the 
character  of  the  person  whom  the  reader  is  expected 
to  believe  in.  There  cannot  be  any  rules  for  making 
conversation;  if  there  are  any  rules  they  are  for 
the  novelists  to  study,  not  for  the  reader.  The  reader 
only  knows  whether  the  speeches  sound  right  or 
whether  the  author  is  cheating  him  by  passing  off  as 
talk  mere  words  which  the  author  strung  out  on 
paper  and  did  not  hear  with  his  inner  sense  from 
the  lips  of  his  character. 

In  the  same  book  there  is  a  description  which  I 
will  quote,  if  I  can  resist  the  temptation  to  parody 
it: 

"  The  house  nestled  amid  the  verdurous  shade  of 
63 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

immense  trees;  to  the  left  of  the  wooded  park  were 
sloping  lawns  dotted  here  and  there  with  beds  of  the 
most  exquisite  flowers,  which  in  contrast  to  the  old 
weatherbeaten  house  greatly  enhanced  the  beauty 
of  the  scene.  Inside  the  house  the  utmost  good  taste 
prevailed  from  the  antique  colonial  hatrack  in  the 
front  hall  to  the  handsome,  but  simple  furniture  of 
the  parlor,  in  one  corner  of  which  on  a  sofa  that 
was  a  cherished  heirloom,  a  young  girl  might  have 
been  seen  sitting  engaged  in  embroidering  a  fine  piece 
of  linen.  She  was  beautiful  with  large  dark  eyes  and 
a  luxuriant  mass  of  richest  brown  hair,"  and  so  on. 

Except  for  the  poor  fun  of  making  sport  of  the 
author  no  one  with  a  sense  of  humor  will  read 
beyond  that.  The  author  himself  cannot  see  the 
place  he  would  present  to  his  reader's  eye.  Descrip- 
tion, which  we  have  chosen  to  regard  as  the  third 
element  of  fiction,  must  aid  the  imagination  to  realize 
the  events  and  the  people  or  it  is  worse  than  in- 
effectual. The  novelist  whose  story  is  "  dotted  here 
and  there  "  with  descriptions  which  really  "  enhance 
the  beauty  "  of  his  story  is  to  be  numbered  among 
the  immortals. 

The  masters  of  description  touch  in  details  of 
sound  and  vision  as  they  progress  with  the  narrative, 
and  the  reader  hears  and  sees  without  being  aware 
that  he  has  read  description.  The  more  leisurely  nov- 
elists, who  are  great  enough  to  carry  a  story  through 
three  volumes,  do  often  stop  and  paint  a  picture,  and 
even  the  great  ones  frequently  fail  to  get  the  pictorial 
effect  they  seek.     Scott's  descriptions  sometimes  in- 

64 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

terfere  with  his  story  and  descend  into  a  catalogue  of 
details.  But  the  total  effect  of  his  description  is  to 
make  the  entire  world  familiar  with  Scotland,  streets, 
houses,  mountains,  and  moors.  It  is  part  of  Scott's 
patriotic  purpose  to  preserve  in  a  series  of  novels 
the  legend,  the  history,  the  character,  the  ideals,  the 
social  customs  of  old  and  new  Scotland;  and  he 
allows  himself,  as  a  kind  of  antiquarian,  all  the  space 
he  needs  for  minute  description.  So  his  descriptions 
serve  a  purpose,  even  when  they  lack  imaginative 
vision.  Moreover,  the  great  river  of  his  stories  is 
broad  and  swift  enough  to  carry  an  amount  of  dead 
wood  which  would  choke  narratives  of  lesser  volume 
and  power. 

A  great  example  of  a  long  descriptive  passage  in 
fiction  is  in  the  fifty-fifth  chapter  of  "  David  Copper- 
field."  There  is  to  be  action  enough  presently  to 
sweep  the  reader  off  his  feet;  in  preparation  for  it 
Dickens  gives  three  or  four  pages  of  description  of 
the  storm.  The  excellence  of  that  description  grows 
upon  the  reader  who  finds  how  seldom  even  the  better 
novelists  succeed  in  painting  on  large  canvases.  Few 
artists  in  prose  have  been  adequate  to  the  greatness 
of  the  sea.  Stevenson  has  succeeded  in  giving  both 
the  seas  on  the  Scotch  coast  and  the  Pacific  with  its 
mysterious  islands.  Of  living  writers  in  English  the 
masters  of  "  sea  pieces  "  are  Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling 
and  Mr.  Joseph  Conrad.  But  none  of  the  younger 
writers,  even  of  those  especially  devoted  to  the  sea, 
has  excelled  Dickens,  landsman  and  London  cockney 
as  he  was,  in  that  great  picture  of  the  storm. 

66 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

I  once  knew  some  young  ladies  who  were 
enamored  of  the  books  of  that  third-rate  novelist, 
Miss  Marie  Corelli.  To  be  fair,  I  never  read  but 
two  of  her  novels,  and  though  they  are  so  false  that 
I  doubt  her  ability  to  write  anything  beautiful  and 
true,  she  may  have  written  masterpieces  that  I  have 
unfortunately  missed.  The  young  ladies  had  named 
their  club  after  one  of  Miss  Corelli's  books.  I 
asked  one  worshipper  what  she  liked  in  her  favorite 
novelist.  The  reply  was  startling:  "  I  love  the  beau- 
tiful descriptions."  It  was  interesting  to  find  a  young 
lady  who  liked  beautiful  descriptions  for  their  own 
sake — most  of  us  are  not  so  far  advanced  in  our 
critical  enjoyment  of  fiction — and  it  was  interesting 
to  learn  that  Miss  Corelli  had  written  beautiful  de- 
scriptions. But  when  I  ungraciously  pressed  the 
matter,  my  friend  confessed  that  she  could  not  find 
any  descriptive  passage  that  seemed  especially  worth 
exhibiting. 

The  secret  of  this  case,  if  we  are  ungallant  enough 
to  subject  to  inquisition  so  tender  a  thing  as  a  young 
lady's  conscience  and  literary  tastes,  is  that  she  had 
learned  from  some  muddied  source  that  a  beautiful 
description  is  a  precious  thing  in  a  novel.  She  was 
afraid  that  the  things  in  the  book  which  really  in- 
terested her  might  not  be  admirable^ — though  I  dare 
say  they  are  harmless  enough — and  so  she  presented 
that  little  white  excuse  for  reading  the  novel.  Just 
so  ladies  who  are  not  young  have  been  known  to 
admire  a  fiction  of  doubtful  character  wholly  for  its 
"exquisite  style,"  when  if  they  really  appreciated 

66 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

"  exquisite  style/'  they  would  be  reading  something 
else. 

There  is  an  enjoyment  of  style  that  seems  either 
apart  from  the  other  kinds  of  enjoyment  in  reading 
or  is  a  refinement,  an  addition,  which  makes  the 
other  kinds  keener.  In  choosing  novels,  however, 
we  do  not  need,  as  a  practical  matter,  to  hunt  for 
style,  any  more  than  we  need  to  hunt  for  descrip- 
tions, for  the  writer  who  is  great  enough  to  contrive 
plots  and  draw  characters  must  have  learned  how 
to  write  well.  The  good  novels  are  all  in  good  style. 
The  fiction  maker  whose  style  is  poor  is  almost 
certain  to  fail  in  other  ways  and  be  altogether  un- 
acceptable. It  is  true  that  among  the  great  ones 
some  have  more  distinction  of  manner  than  others. 
Thackeray  never  writes  so  clumsily  as  Dickens  at 
his  worst.  Stevenson's  phrasing  is  invariably  ex- 
cellent, whereas  a  greater  novelist,  Walter  Scott, 
often  for  pages  at  a  time  throws  off  his  sentences 
so  hastily  that  they  are  not  easy,  not  pleasant,  to 
read.  Jane  Austen  in  her  style  is  near  to  per- 
fection; George  Eliot,  a  writer  of  much  more  power, 
whose  heights  of  eloquence  are  not  equaled  by  any 
other  woman,  seems  sometimes  to  be  either  express- 
ing a  kind  of  thought,  or  expressing  it  in  a  vocabulary 
and  with  a  complexity  of  construction,  which  would 
be  tolerable  in  a  philosophic  essay  but  is  not  suited 
to  fictitious  narrative.  It  is  well  to  begin  to  be  aware 
of  the  degrees  of  style  and  their  general  effect,  to 
enjoy  beauty  and  eloquence  and  grace  in  some  meas- 
ure  for   their   own   sake.      But   the   inexperienced 

67 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

reader  is  safe  to  choose  his  novels  for  their  substance; 
the  style  will  usually  be  adequate  and  the  merits 
of  the  style  will  enter  the  reader's  consciousness 
gradually  and  without  effort  of  appreciation  on  his 
part. 

In  choosing  novels  the  ordinary  reader  need  not 
at  first  concern  himself  with  the  history  of  a  novelist 
or  his  technical  characteristics,  or  with  the  place 
which  critics  have  given  to  him  in  their  schemes  of 
literary  development.  A  simple  method  of  selection 
is  to  find  on  somebody's  advice  a  novel  that  has 
interested  many  readers,  and  then  if  it  prove  good, 
to  try  another  by  the  same  author.  If  a  writer  has 
produced  two  novels  that  interest  you,  it  is  safe  to 
assume  that  he  has  written  a  third  and  a  fourth. 
Some  writers,  it  is  true,  have  been  distinguished  for 
a  single  masterpiece.  "Don  Quixote"  is  the  only  book 
of  Cervantes'  that  we  are  likely  to  care  for.  "  Robin- 
son Crusoe  "  is  all  that  most  people  have  found  good 
in  Defoe's  tales  (though  there  is  much  merit  in  his 
other  stories).  No  other  book  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  is  even 
second  to  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  "The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield  "  is  the  glorious  whole  of  Goldsmith's  nar-- 
rative  prose,  though  he  succeeded  in  every  other  form 
of  literature,  including  the  prose  drama.  But  the 
man  who  can  write  two  novels  can  write  three  if  he 
has  time ;  the  two-novel  power  is  likely  to  be  a  ten- 
novel  power  with  torpedo  fleets  of  short  stories  and 
essays.  Anyone  who  has  liked  "  Silas  Marner  "  and 
"  Middlemarch  "  will  not  need  to  be  urged  to  read 
"  Felix  Holt,"  "  Adam  Bede,"  "  Romola,"  "  The  Mill 

08 


HAWTHORNE 


The  Reading  of  Miction 

on  the  Floss."  The  person  who  has  once  read  and 
enjoyed  two  novels  of  Dickens  is  likely  to  read  six 
or  eight.  "  Pendennis  "  leads  to  "  The  ISTewcomes." 
And  any  of  Trollope's  "  Barchester,"  novels  is  an 
introduction  to  the  happily  interminable  series. 

I  have  purposely  said  little  about  the  short  story, 
because  in  this  day  of  magazines  we  all  read  short 
stories,  some  of  them  pretty  good  ones.  There  are 
fifty  persons  who  can  write  one  or  two  acceptable 
short  tales  to  one  who  can  make  a  novel  of  mod- 
erate merit.  And  the  great  writers  of  the  tale  have 
often  been  novelists  as  well,  so  that  if  one  begins 
to  read  novels  one  will  meet  with  the  best  short 
stories  which  have  been  worth  collecting  into  vol- 
umes. Readers  of  "  The  House  of  Seven  Gables  "  and 
"  The  Scarlet  Letter  '*  will  make  the  acquaintance  of 
Hawthorne's  "  Twice  Told  Tales  "  and  "  Mosses  from 
an  Old  Manse."  Among  modern  fictionists  of  im- 
portance Poe  stands  almost  alone  as  a  writer  of  tales 
who  never  tried  the  longer  and  greater  form  of  the 
novel,  though  there  are  several  excellent  authors, 
such  as  Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling,  Miss  Sarah  Orne 
Jewett,  Mrs.  Mary  Wilkins-Freeman,  whose  short 
tales  outweigh  in  value,  if  not  in  quantity,  their 
more  extended  narratives. 

In  our  discussion  of  fiction  we  have  dwelt  en- 
tirely on  books  for  adults  and  neglected  what  is 
known  as  juvenile  fiction.  Here  again  the  omission 
was  intended.  Juvenile  fiction  is  certain  to  make  its 
way  in  more  than  ample  supply  into  American  homes, 
and  I  doubt  whether  fiction  that  is  wholly  good  for 

69 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

adults  is  not  the  best  for  boys  and  girls  of,  say,  thir- 
teen. When  our  fathers  and  mothers,  or  our  grand- 
fathers and  grandmothers,  were  young,  they  read 
the  newest  book  by  Dickens,  Thackeray,  Wilkie  Col- 
lins, and  were  no  worse  for  having  fewer  "  juveniles  '' 
than  modern  publishers  purvey  for  the  benefit  of  the 
growing  generation.  I  should  think  that  Henty's 
books,  which  have  merits,  but  were  turned  out  on  a 
steam  lathe,  would  suggest  that  Scott's  historical 
romances  are  better,  and  that  the  Pattys  and  Pollys 
and  Lucys  and  Brendas,  whose  adventures  are  chron- 
icled in  many  an  entertaining  series  would  speedily 
make  way  for  heroines  like  Maggie  Tulliver  and 
heroes  like  Master  Tom  Brown,  whose  youth  is  peren- 
nial. When  "juveniles''  are  really  good,  parents 
read  them  after  children  have  gone  to  bed.  I  do  not 
know  whether  "  Tom  Brown  at  Rugby  "  is  catalogued 
by  the  careful  librarians  as  a  book  for  boys,  but  I 
am  sure  it  is  a  book  for  men.  I  dare  say  that  a 
good  many  pairs  of  eyes  that  have  passed  over  the 
pages  of  Mr.  John  T.  Trowbridge  and  Elijah  Kellogg 
and  Louisa  Alcott  have  been  old  enough  to  wear 
spectacles.  And  if  Mrs.  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  ever 
thought  that  in  "  Timothy's  Quest  "  and  "  Rebecca  " 
she  was  writing  books  especially  for  the  young,  adult 
readers  have  long  since  claimed  her  for  their  own. 
I  have  enjoyed  Mr.  A.  S.  Pier's  tales  of  the  boys 
at  "  St.  Timothy's,"  though  he  planned  them  for 
younger  readers.  We  are  told  on  good  authority  that 
St.  Nicholas  and  The  YouWs  Companion  appear  in 
households  where  there  are  no  children,  and  they 

70 


The  Eeading  of  Fiction 

give  a  considerable  portion  of  their  space  to  serial 
stories  written  for  young  people.  Between  good 
"  juveniles  "  and  good  books  for  grown  persons  there 
is  not  much  essential  difference. 

Anyone  who  is  old  enough  to  make  out  the  words 
can  safely  enter  the  large  world  of  the  English  and 
American  novel.  The  chances  of  encountering  the 
few  that  are  unfit  for  the  young  are  slight.  Euskin  in 
his  essay  "  Of  Queens'  Gardens,"  which  treats  of  the 
education  of  girls,  says:  "Whether  novels,  or  poetry, 
or  history  be  read,  they  should  be  chosen,  not  for 
what  is  out  of  them  but  for  what  is  in  them.  The 
chance  and  scattered  evil  that  may  here  and  there 
haunt,  or  hide  itself  in,  a  powerful  book,  never  does 
any  harm  to  a  noble  girl;  but  the  emptiness  of  an 
author  oppresses  her,  and  his  amiable  folly  degrades 
her."  A  novel  in  our  language  that  has  been  read 
and  freely  talked  of  for  many  years  is  as  safe  as  a 
church;  and  there  are  enough  such  novels  to  keep 
one  happily  occupied  during  all  the  hours  one  can 
give  to  reading  fiction  to  the  end  of  one's  days. 

LIST  OF  FICTION 
Supplementary  to  Chapter  IV 

The  following  list  of  novels,  tales,  and  prose 
dramas  is  offered  to  the  young  reader  by  way  of  sug- 
gestion and  not  as  a  "prescribed"  list.  Like  the 
other  lists  in  this  book  it  omits  many  masterpieces 
that  will  occur  immediately  to  the  mind  of  the  older 

71 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

reader,  and  it  includes  some  books  that  are  not  mas- 
terpieces. The  notes,  or  "  evaluations  "  as  the  libra- 
rians call  them,  are  arbitrary,  indicating  the  private 
opinions  of  the  present  Guide;  they  are  sometimes 
extensive  in  the  case  of  less  important  writers  and 
are  omitted  in  the  cases  of  the  great  masters.  The 
way  to  use  the  list  is  to  run  over  it  from  time  to 
time  until  you  form  a  bowing  acquaintance  with  the 
names  of  a  few  authors  and  some  of  their  books. 
One  title  or  another  is  likely  to  attract  you  or  excite 
your  curiosity.  If  you  follow  the  impulse  of  that 
aroused  curiosity  and  go  get  the  book,  the  list  will 
have  served  its  purpose. 

Edmond  Fean^gis   Valentin  About    (1828-85). 
Le  Roi  des  Montagues. 
Easy  to  read  in  French,  and  to  be  found  translated 
into  English. 

^sop.     Fables. 

Found  in  many  editions,  some  especially  selected 
and  illustrated  for  children, 

Louisa  ]May  Alcott    (1832-88).     An  Old-Fash- 
ioned Girl.    Little  Women.    Little  Men.    Worh. 
Jack  and  Jill.     Jo's  Boys. 
Miss  Alcott  has  always  been  a  favorite  of  young 
people.     Her  faithful  and  wholesome  stories  of  life 
in  a  Xew  England  coimtry  town  entitle  her  to  place 
in  the  delightful  company  of  Rose   Terry   Cooke, 
Sarah  Ome  Jewett,   Mrs.   Mary  Wilkins-Freeman, 
and  Miss  Alice  Brown. 

72 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldeich  (1836-1907).  The  Story 
of  a  Bad  Boy.  Marjorie  Daw. 
A  delicate  romancer  with  subtle  humor  and  a  turn 
for  paradoxical  ingenious  fooling  which  is  character- 
istic in  one  form  or  another  of  American  writers  as 
unlike  as  Frank  R.  Stockton,  Edward  Everett  Hale, 
and  Mark  Twain. 

James  Lane  Allen.  Flute  and  Violin.  The  Blue 
Grass  Region.  A  Kentucky  Cardinal.  After- 
math, 

Hans  Cheistla.n  Andeesen  (1805-75).  Fairy 
Tales. 
To  be  found  in  Everyman  s  Library.  This  collec- 
tion of  books,  published  at  fifty  cents  the  volume  by 
E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  is  perhaps  the  best  ever  grouped 
in  an  inexpensive  edition.  It  will  be  frequently  re- 
ferred to  in  this  and  succeeding  lists.  Most  of  the 
books  in  it  are  worth  reading  and  no  doubt  worth 
buying,  and  this  is  true  of  most  "  Universal  Libra- 
ries," "  Libraries  of  the  World's  Best  Literature," 
"  Five-Foot  Book  Shelves,"  etc.  But  for  variety's 
sake  one  would  wish  not  to  have  all  the  books  on  one's 
shelves  in  the  same  style  of  type  and  binding.  And 
in  general  it  is  better  to  buy  the  book  one  wants, 
distinguished  by  its  title  and  author,  than  to  take  as 
a  whole  any  editor's  or  publisher's  collection  of 
"  classics." 

Rasmus  Bjoen  Andeeson.     Norse  Mythology. 

The  simplest  form  in  which  to  read  the  stories  of 
the  Eddas  and  Scandinavian  myths.     It  is  at  once 

73 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

a  lore  book  for  students  and  a  wonder  book  for  young 
and  old. 

Arabian  Nights.  In  a  volume  of  Everyman  s 
Library.  Another  good  edition  is  that  prepared  by 
Andrew  Lang. 

Jai^e  Austen   (1775-1817).     Sense  and  Sensibil- 
ity.    Pride   and  Prejudice.     Mansfield  Pari:. 
Emma.    Northanger  Abbey.    Persuasion, 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

HoNOEE  DE  Balzac  (1799-1850).    Atheist's  Mass. 
The  Chouans.     Christ  in  Flanders.     Eugenie 
Grandet.     Old  Goriot.    The  Quest  of  the  Abso- 
lute.    Wild  Ass^s  Skin. 
These  are  the  works  of  Balzac  found  in  translation 
in  Everyman's  Library.     All  the  novels  of  Balzac 
have  been  translated  into  English.    Balzac  is  not  the 
easiest  of  French  novelists  to  read  in  the  original, 
though  not  very  difficult.     The  young  American  who 
will  take  the  trouble,  and  give  himself  the  pleasure, 
of  reading  a  score  of  French  novels  will  find  himself 
with  a  good  reading  knowledge  of  the  language,  and 
school  and  college  examinations  in  French  will  lose 
their  terror. 

James  Matthew  Barbie.     Auld  Licht  Idylls.     A 
Window  in  Thrums.    The  Little  Minister.    Sen- 
timental Tommy.     Tommy  and  Grizel. 
Mr.   Barrie  has  the  most  tender  and  whimsical 
imagination  of  living  writers  in  English.     His  later 
work  has  been  largely  for  the  stage. 

74 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

KiCHAKD    Doddridge    Blackmoee     (1825-1900). 
Lorna  Doone. 

George   Henry   Borrow    (1803-81).      Lavengro, 
Romany  Rye. 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

Charlotte  Broi^te  (1816-55).     Jane  Eyre. 
Emily  Bronte    (1818-48).      Wuthering   Heights. 

Alice  Brown.   King's  End.  Meadow  Grass.   Tiver- 
ton Tales. 

John  Brown  (1810-82).     Rah  and  His  Friends. 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

Thomas    Bulfinch.      The    Age    of    Chivalry,    or 
Legends  of  King  Arthur.     The  Age  of  Fable, 
or  Beauties  of  Mythology.    Legends  of  Charle- 
magne, or  Romance  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  prose  storehouse  of  Arthurian  legend  in  Eng- 
lish is  Thomas  Mallory's  "  Morte  d' Arthur,"  which 
is  in  two  volumes  in  Everyman's  Library.    But  Mal- 
lory  is  not  easy  reading.     The  finest  versions  are 
those  by  the  poets,  Tennyson's  "  Idylls  of  the  King," 
Matthew   Arnold's   "  Tristram   and   Iseult,"    Swin- 
burne's "  Tale  of  Balen."     Modern  prose  versions 
suited  to  young  readers  are  Howard  Pyle's  "  Story 
of  King  Arthur  and  his  Knights,"  Sidney  Lanier's 
"  Boy's  King  Arthur  "  and  Andrew  Lang's  "  Book 
of   Romance."      Legends    allied   to    the    Arthurian 
stories  are  found  in  Lady  Guest's  "  Mabinogian," 
which  appears  in  one  volume  in  Everyman's  Library. 

75 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

See  also  "  The  Boy's  Mabinogian/'  by  Sidney 
Lanier. 

The  stories  of  Charlemagne  are  found  in  a  volume 
suited  for  young  readers  edited  by  Alfred  John 
Church. 

Classic  mythology  in  its  highest  form  is,  of  course, 
to  be  found  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  poets,  and  it 
permeates  English  poetry.  Prose  versions  of  Greek 
and  Roman  tales  suited  to  young  readers  are  to  be 
found  in  ]!^athaniel  Hawthorne's  "  Wonder  Book " 
and  "  Tanglewood  Tales,"  Charles  Kingsley's  "  The 
Heroes,  or  Greek  Fairy  Tales  for  My  Children," 
and  "  Stories  from  the  Greek  Tragedians,"  by  Alfred 
John  Church.  See  also  "  A  Child's  Guide  to  Myth- 
ology," by  Helen  A.  Clarke. 

Henry  Cuylur  Bunnee  (1855-96).     Short  Sixes, 
Among  the  best  American  short  stories. 

John  Bunyan    (1628-88).      The  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress. 
In  Everymaris  Library  and  many  other  cheap 
editions. 

Frances  Hodgson  Burnett.     Little  Lord  Faunt- 
leroy.     Editha's  Burglar,     Sara  Crewe. 

Frances  Burney  (Madame  d'Arblay,  1752-1840). 
Evelina. 

George  Washington   Cable.      Old  Creole  Days, 
The  Grandissimes. 

Miguel    de    Cervantes    Saavedra    (1547-1616). 
Don  Quixote. 

76 


JO  J 

'  J  >  >  J  J 


,  '      )      'j    5      '  >     J    J     -    J 


COOPER 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

In  Motteiix's  translation  in  two  volumes  of  Every- 
man's Library,  and  other  popular  editions. 

Samuel  Langhoene  Clemens  (^' Mark  Twain"). 
Tom  Sawyer.  The  Prince  and  the  Pauper. 
HucMeherry  Finn.  A  Connecticut  Yankee  in 
King  Arthur's  Court.  Puddfnhead  Wilson. 
Personal  Recollections  of  Joan  of  Arc.  The 
Man  that  Corrupted  Hadleyhurg. 

William  Wilkie  Collins  (1824-89).  The  Wom- 
an in  White.     The  Moonstone. 

Joseph  Conkad.  Youth.  Falk.  The  Children  of 
the  Sea.  Typhoon. 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  recent  writers,  a 
Pole  who  adopted  the  English  language  and  has  con- 
tributed to  its  beauties.  Unsurpassed  as  a  writer  of 
stories  of  the  sea. 

James  Fenimoee  Cooper  (1789-1851).     The  Spy. 
The  Pilot.     The  Last  of  the  Mohicans.     The 
Prairie.      The    Pathfinder.      The    Deerslayer. 
The  Bed  Rover. 
The  young  reader  had  better  plunge  into  Cooper 
before  he  ceases  to  be  a  young  reader;  not  that  the 
adult  reader  cannot  enjoy  these  virile  narratives, 
which  have  been  read  all  over  the  world  for  nearly 
a  century,  they  will  always  remain  important  records 
of  early  American  life;  but  better  fiction  soon  dis- 
places them,  growth  in  literary  taste  makes  evident 
the  defects  which  Mark  Twain  sets  forth  in  his  witty 
essay  on  Cooper;  and  to  have  grown  beyond  Cooper 

77 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

without    having    met    and    enjoyed    him    means    a 
genuine  loss. 

Dinah    Maeia    Ceaik    (Mrs.    Mulock,    1826-87). 
John  Halifax,  Gentleman, 

Francis   Marion   Crawford    (1854-1909).      Mr. 
Isaacs.      Dr.    Claudius.      Saracinesca.      SanV 
Ilario.     A  Cigarette  Maher's  Romance. 
Crawford  had  a  vein  of  real  genius  which  is  ob- 
scured by  the  great  number  of  his  less  meritorious 
books. 

George  William  Curtis  (1824-92).    Prue  and  I. 

This   pleasant,   fine-hearted  humorist   should  not 

be  neglected  by  the  rising  generation  of  Americans. 

George  Cupples  (1822-91).     The  Green  Hand. 

EicHARD  Henry  Dana  (1815-82).  Two  Years 
Before  the  Mast. 
It  is  a  happy  accident  that  Dana's  name  follows 
that  of  Cupples.  Fifty  years  ago  in  "  The  Green 
Hand  "  and  "  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast "  England 
and  America  held  command  of  the  sea  in  fiction. 
This  is  an  appropriate  place  to  mention  three  books 
by  the  American  writer,  Herman  Melville  (1819- 
91),  "Omoo,"  "Typee"  and  "Moby  Dick," 
which  are  big  enough  to  sail  in  the  fleet  with  Cupples 
and  Dana.  Sea  craft  are  growing  larger  every  year 
but  not  sea  books,  though  Mr.  Joseph  Conrad,  Mr. 
Rudyard  Kipling,  Mr.  Frank  Bullen  and  Mr.  Clark 
Russell  are  taking  us  on  good  voyages  under  sail 
and  steam. 

78 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

Alphonse  Daudet    (1840-97).     Le  Petit   Chose. 
Jack.    Tartarin  of  Tarascon.     Contes  Choisis. 
Among  the  easiest  of  French  writers  to  read  in 
the  original.     Several  of  his  books  have  been  pub- 
lished in  English. 

KicHAED  Harding  Davis.     Gallegher,     Van  Bibher 
and  Others. 
Fresh  and  charming  short  stories  by  a  writer  who 
has  not  fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  youth. 

Edmondo    de    Amicis.      Heart;   A    School    Boy's 
Journal. 
A  fine   story  of  schoolboy  life,   to  be  found  in 
English  translation. 

Daniel  Defoe  (166  ?-lY31).     Robinson  Crusoe. 

William   De  Morgan-.     Joseph  Vance.     Alice-for- 
Short.     Somehow  Good. 

Charles  Dickens  (1812-70). 

'^o  list  of  titles  is  necessary  under  the  name  of 
Dickens.  There  are  innumerable  editions  of  his 
works. 

Benjamin    Disraeli     (Lord    Beaconsfield,    1804- 
81).    Vivian  Grey.   Coningsby.   Lothair.   Sybil. 

Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson  ("Lewis  Carroll"). 
Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland.     Through 
the  Looking  Glass.    Silvie  and  Bruno. 
And  we  could  not  be  happy  without  "  The  Hunt- 
ing of  the  Snark  "  and  other  verses  in  Lewis  Car- 
roll's "  Khyme  and  Keason." 

79 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Arthur  Coi^ai^  Doyle.     Adventures  of  Sherlock 
Holmes,    Memoirs  of  Sherlock  Holmes.    Micah 
Clark.     The  White  Company. 
The    fame    of  the    Sherlock   Holmes   stories   has 
thrown  somewhat  into  the  background  the  best  of 
Sir    Conan    Doyle's    work,    the    two    historical    ro- 
mances. 

Alexandre  Dumas,  Pere  (1803-70). 

'No  list  of  titles  is  necessary  under  Dumas's  name. 
For  though  he  and  his  "  syndicate "  of  assistants 
produced  a  great  number  of  mediocre  works,  those 
most  frequently  met  in  English  are  good,  "  The 
Three  Musketeers,"  "  The  Count  of  Monte  Cristo," 
"  The  Queen's  JSTecklace "  and  "  Twenty  Years 
After.'' 

George  du  Maurier  (1834-96).     Peter  Ibhetson, 
Trilby. 

Edward  Eggleston.     The   Hoosier  Schoolmxister, 
The  Hoosier  Schoolboy. 

George  Eliot  (Mary  Ann  Evans,  1819-80). 

No  titles  are  necessary  under  George  Eliot's  name. 
Several  of  her  novels  are  in  Everyman's  Library,  and 
there  are  other  inexpensive  editions. 

Erckmann-Chatrian  (Emile  Erckmann  and  Louis 

Alexandre     Chatrian).      Friend     Fritz.      The 

Blockade  of  Phalsburg.    Madame  Therese.    The 

Story  of  a  Conscript.     Waterloo. 

The  two  last  named  are  in  Everyman's  Library. 

80 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

Anatole  France   (Thibault).     Le  Crime  de  8yl- 

vestre    Bonnard.      From   a   Mother   of   Pearl 

Casket. 

All  the  works  of  this  writer  are  being  translated 

into  English.     The  title  given  above  in  English  is 

a  translated  collection  of  some  of  his  short  stories. 

Alice  French  (Octave  Thanet).  Stories  of  a  West- 
ern Town, 

Elizabeth  Gaskell  (1810-65).     Cranford. 

JoHANN    Wolfgang    von    Goethe    (1749-1832). 
Wilhelm  Meister's  Apprenticeship  and  Travels, 
In  Carlyle's  translation. 

Oliver  Goldsmith  (1728-74).  The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield.  She  Stoops  to  Conquer.  The  Good- 
Natured  Man. 

Kenneth  Grahame.  The  Golden  Age.  Dream 
Days. 

Jakob  and  Wilhelm  Grimm.    Fairy  Tales. 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

Edward  Everett  Hale  (1822-1909).  The  Man 
Without  a  Country. 
The  volume  under  this  title,  published  by  Little, 
Brown  &  Co.,  contains  the  best  of  Dr.  Hale's  short 
stories.  The  title  story  is  a  masterpiece  of  fiction 
and  the  greatest  of  all  sermons  on  patriotism. 

LuDOvic  Halevy.     The  Ahhe  Constantin. 

A  charming  story  in  simple  French,  and  to  be 
found  translated  JJlto  English, 

81 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Thomas  Hardy.     Far  from  the  Madding  Crowd, 

The  Return  of  the  Native.    The  Mayor  of  Cas- 

terhridge.     A  Pair  of  Blue  Eyes.     Under  the 

Greenwood  Tree, 

Incomparably  the  greatest  of  living  novelists  of 

our  race.     Certain  characteristics  of  his  later  novels 

make  them  neither  pleasant  nor  intelligible  to  young 

readers,  but  any  of  those  here  mentioned  is  as  well 

adapted  to  the  reader  of  any  age  as  are  George  Eliot's 

^'  Adam  Bede  "  and  Thackeray's  "  Pendennis." 

Joel  Chandler  Harris.     Uncle  Remus.     Nights 
with  Uncle  Remus.    Mingo.    Free  Joe. 

Francis  Bret  Harte  (1839-1902).    The  Luck  of 
Roaring  Camp. 

The  volume  of  this  title,  published  by  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  contains  the  best  of  Harte's  short 
stories,  and  the  best  remain  very  good  indeed,  though 
since  they  took  the  world  by  storm  other  writers  have 
given  us  a  truer  insight  into  the  life  which  Harte 
was  the  first  to  discover  and  proclaim.  Harte  is  a 
capital  humorist  in  his  way,  both  in  his  swaggering 
hearty  short  stories  (see  "  Colonel  Starbottle's 
Client")  and  in  his  parodies  (see  "Condensed 
i^Tovels'O. 
l!^ATHANiEL  Hawthorne  (1804-64). 

'Eo  list  of  titles  is  necessary  under  Hawthorne's 
name.  America  has  no  other  literary  artist  of  his 
stature  and  perfection,  and  he  is  the  one  American 
whose  works  we  can  say  "  you  ought  to  read  "  entire 
— we  dare  say  it,  that  is,  to  American  readers. 

32 


The  Eeading  of  Fiction 

Maurice  Hewlett.  Life  and  Death  of  Richard 
Yea-and-Nay.  ^ 

Mr.  Hewlett  is  one  of  the  ten  or  twelve  important 
living  writers  of  English  fiction.  I  have  seen  no 
book  of  his  which  is  not  good.  I  give  only  one  title ; 
his  brilliant  and  varied  achievement  in  the  past 
decade  makes  difficult  the  selection  of  other  titles  for 
this  limited  list. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (1809-94).  Elsie 
Venner,  Guardian  Angel, 
Holmes's  fiction  is  subordinate  both  to  his  essays 
and  his  poems,  and  should  be  postponed  until  the 
reader  has  become  a  true  lover  of  the  Autocrat.  The 
novels  are  good  for  the  reason,  if  for  no  other,  that 
Holmes  was  one  of  the  rare  geniuses  who  cannot 
write  otherwise  than  with  wisdom  and  charm. 

Anthony  Hope  (Hawkins).  The  Prisoner  of 
Zenda, 
The  first  in  point  of  time  and  excellence  of  a  now 
numerous  class  of  historical  novels  in  which  the 
history  and  the  geography  as  well  as  the  "  story " 
are  fictitious. 

William  Dean  Ho  wells.  A  Chance  Acquaint- 
ance. The  Lady  of  the  Aroostook.  Dr.  Breen's 
Practice.  A  Modern  Instance.  The  Rise  of 
Silas  Lapham.  The  Minister's  Charge.  April 
Hopes.    The  Flight  of  Pony  Baker. 

Thomas  Hughes  (1823-96).  Tom  Browns 
Schooldays.     Tom  Brown  at  Oxford. 

83 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Victor  Hugo  (1812-85).     Les  Miserables.     Qua- 
trevingt-Treize.     Notre  Dame  de  Paris.     Les 
Travailleurs  de  la  Mer. 
Hugo's  novels  appear  in  several  English  transla- 
tions. 

Henrik  Ibsen.    Prose  Dramas. 

Edited  and  translated  by  William  Archer  and 
others.  The  reading  of  Ibsen,  the  greatest  dramatist 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  may  be  postponed  until 
the  reader  has  come  to  mature  views  of  life. 

Washington   Irving    (1783-1859).      Shetch-Booh. 
Tales  of  a  Traveler,     Bracehridge  Hall. 

W.  W.  Jacobs.  Many  Cargoes.  Light  Freights. 
Dialstone  Lane. 
A  teller  of  delightfully  droll  stories.  Like  Frank 
R.  Stockton,  a  much  finer  artist  than  the  more 
serious-minded  critics  would  be  disposed  to  admit. 
It  is  difficult  to  select  for  this  list  the  best  of  the 
score  of  talented  short-story  writers  of  the  day.  Per- 
haps this  is  a  good  place  to  slip  in  the  name  of  a 
contemporary  American  whose  fresh  and  original 
stories  have  deservedly  survived  their  day  in  the 
magazines  and  been  collected  in  volumes — Mr.  Sid- 
ney Porter,  "  0.  Henry." 

Henry  James.     Roderick  Hudson.     Daisy  Miller. 

The  American.    The  Portrait  of  a  Lady.    The 

Princess  Casamassima. 

Young  readers  should  beware  of  misleading  chatter 

about  Mr.  James  which  appears  in  columns  of  book 

84 


ELIOT 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

gossip  and  newspaper  comment;  it  attempts  to  turn 
Mr.  James  into  a  joke  and  caricatures  his  subtlety 
and  obscurity;  it  is  analogous  to  the  flippant  and 
derisive  nonsense  through  which  Browning  lived  to 
reach  the  people  at  last.  "  Roderick  Hudson  "  is  a 
great  novel  and  is  as  clear,  strong,  and  easy  to 
read  as  the  work  of  any  other  thoughtful  novelist  you 
may  choose  for  comparison. 

Sarah  Orne  Jewett  (1849-1909).     Country  By- 
Ways.     A   Country  Doctor,     A   White  Heron, 
Strangers  and  Wayfarers,    The  Country  of  the 
Pointed  Firs. 
Stories  of  the  better  classes  of  ]N"ew  England  coun- 
try folk  written  in  a  style  of  unblemished  clarity 
and  sweetness. 

Mary  Johnston^.    Lewis  Band, 

Charles  Kingsley  (1819-75).   Alton  Locke,    Hy- 
patia.     Westward  Hoi 

Rudyard  Kipliis^g.     Plain  Tales  from  the  Hills, 

Many  Inventions,    Wee  Willie  Winkie,    Life's 

Handicap.      Soldiers    Three,      In    Black    and 

White.    The  Story  of  the  Oadshys.    The  Light 

that  Failed,     The  Jungle  Book.     The  Second 

Jungle    Book,      The    Bay's    Work,      Captains 

Courageous,     Kim, 

In  spite  of  a  curiously  eager  disposition  on  the  part 

of  current  writers  to  regard  Kipling's  career  as  over 

and  done,  he  is  the  foremost  living  writer  of  short 

stories  in  English,   and  of  no  other  young  living 

85 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

writer  can  it  be  so  safely  averred  that  he  has  become 
one  of  the  established  classics  of  his  race. 

Friedrich  Heinrich  Karl  de  La  Motte  Fouque 
(1777-1843).     Undine. 

Pierre  Loti  (L.  M.  J.  Viaud).    An  Iceland  Fisher- 
man. 
This   and  the   autobiographical   "  Romance  of  a 
Child/'  and  several  of  Loti's  books  of  travel  are  in 
English. 

Edward   G.    E.    L.    Bulwer-Lytton    (1801-72). 

Harold,  the  Last  of  the  Saxon  Kings.     Last 

Days  of  Pompeii. 
Lord   Lytton   is   one   of  the    Victorian  novelists 
whose  great  reputation  is  growing  rapidly  less,  and 
deservedly   so,   but   his   historical  novels   are  more 
than  worth  reading. 

George  Macdonald  (1824-1905).     David  Elgin- 
hrod.     Robert  Falconer.     Sir  Gihhie.     At  the 
Bach  of  the  North  Wind. 
A  novelist  whose  popularity  among  younger  read- 
ers is  probably  less  than  his  great  merits. 

Xavier    de    Maistre     (1764-1852).      La    Jeune 
Siberienne. 

Alessandro     Manzoni     (1785-1873).      The    Be- 
trothed Lovers. 
There  are  several  English  translations  of  this  most 
famous  of  Italian  historical  romances. 

86 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

Feederick  Mabryat  (1792-1848).  Jacob  Faith- 
ful, Peter  Simple.  Mr,  Midshipman  Easy. 
Masterman  Ready, 

A.  E.  W.  Mason.    The  Four  Feathers, 

A  story  of  bravery  and  cowardice  of  unusual  merit. 

Guy  de  Maupassant  (1850-93).    The  Odd  Number. 
This  is  an  English  translation  of  some  of  Mau- 
passant's best  tales. 

George    Meredith    (1828-1909).      Harry    Rich- 
mond,   Beauchamp's  Career,    Rhoda  Fleming, 
Evan  Harrington, 
At  his  death  the  foremost  English  man  of  letters. 
A  noble  poet  and  a  novelist  who  easily  stands  among 
the  few  greatest  of  the  century.     A  taste  for  Mer- 
edith grows  on  the  individual  as  it  has  grown  on  the 
general  world  of  readers.     The  novels  in  this  list 
include  not  all  the  greatest  but  the  best  for  the  new 
reader  to  try  first. 

Prosper  Merimee  (1803-70).     Colomba, 

In  easy  French,  and  has  been  translated  into  Eng- 
lish. 

Silas  Weir  Mitchell.  Hugh  Wynne,  Roland 
Blahe, 

Mary  Russell  Mitpoed  (1786-1855).  Our  Vil- 
lage, 

William  Morris  (1834-96).  The  Well  at  the 
World's  End, 

87 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Eeaders  who  chance  to  like  this  prose  poem  by 
a  devoted  apostle  of  liberty  and  beauty  will  be  led 
to  his  other  romances  in  prose  and  verse. 

Maey  l^OAiLLEs  MuRFEEE  ("  Charles  Egbert  Crad- 
dock").  In  the  Tennessee  Mountains.  Down 
the  Ravine,  In  the  Clouds,  In  the  Stranger 
People's  Country. 

Portrays  the  solitude  and  pathos  of  the  life  of 
the  mountaineers  of  Tennessee.  In  sincerity  and  the 
genuineness  of  the  substance  better  than  in  work- 
manship. 

Nibelungenlied. 

The  story  of  the  Treasure  of  the  Mbelungs  is  told 
for  young  readers  by  A.  J.  Church  in  "  Heroes  of 
Chivalry  and  Romance."  It  is  also  found  in  "  Wag- 
ner Opera  Stories  "  by  G.  E.  Barber,  and  in  ''  The 
Wagner  Story  Book ''  by  W.  H.  Frost.  Any  critical 
or  biographical  work  on  Wagner  will  take  the  reader 
into  this  great  German  legend. 

Frank  IsTokkis.     The  Octopus.     The  Pit. 

A  serious  novelist  cut  off  in  his  prime  before  his 
work  attained  the  greatness  that  it  seemed  to  promise. 

Margaret  Oliphant  (1828-97).  Chronicles  of 
Carlingford,     A  Beleaguered  City. 

Alfred  Ollivant.     Boh,  Son  of  Battle. 
A  first-rate  story  of  a  dog. 

Thomas  ]!^elso]S"  Page.     Elslcet.    In  Ole  Virginia, 

A  sincere  and  sympathetic  portrayer  of  old  and 

new  Virginia.     As  is  generally  true  of  American 

88 


The  Eeading  of  Fiction 

fictionists,  he  is  better  in  the  short  story  than  in  the 
novel. 

Gilbert  Pabkee.     Pierre  and  His  People.     The 
Battle  of  the  Strong.    Seats  of  the  Mighty. 

Elizabeth  Stuaet  Phelps.     Fourteen  to  One.    A 
Singular  Life. 

Edeit  Phillpotts.      Children  of  the  Mist.     The 
Human  Boy.     The  Secret  Woman. 
One  of  the  distinguished  living  novelists  of  Eng- 
land. 

Edgar  Allan  Poe  (1809-49).  Tales  of  the  Gro- 
tesque and  Arabesque. 
There  are  many  single-volume  editions  of  Poe's 
short  stories.  An  inexpensive  complete  edition  of 
Poe  is  published  by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  The  best 
and  final  edition  of  Poe  is  that  edited  by  Stedman 
and  Woodberry. 

Jane  Portee  (1776-1850).    Scottish  Chiefs. 

HowAED  Pyle.  Some  Merry  Adventures  of  Robin 
Hood.  The  Garden  Behind  the  Moon. 
Mr.  Pyle's  books  are  delightful  for  the  illustra- 
tions. The  competence  of  his  painting  and  his  dra- 
matic and  literary  imagination  make  him  the  fore- 
most American  illustrator,  and  the  texts  which  he 
writes  to  accompany  his  drawings  are  adequate, 
though  not  in  themselves  remarkable. 

EuDOLF  Eeich  Easpe.     Surprising  Adventures  of 
Baron  Munchausen. 

89 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

In  the  translation  edited  by  Thomas  Seccombe.  A 
selection  of  the  Miinchausen  stories  for  young  people 
made  by  Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  is  published 
by  D.  C.  Heath  &  Co. 

Charles  Eeade  (1814-84:).  The  Cloister  and  the 
Hearth.  Hard  Cash.  Put  Yourself  in  His 
Place. 

Samuel  Richardsoit  (1689-1761).     Clarissa  Har- 
lowe. 
There  is  an  abridged  edition  of  this  very  long 
novel.  4 

George  Sand  (A.  L.  A.  Dupin,  1804-76).     Con- 
suelo.     The  Little  Fadette.     The  Devil's  Pool. 
Mauprat. 
These  and  others  of  George  Sand's  novels  are  in 

English. 

Walter  Scott  (1771-1832). 

!N'o  list  of  titles  is  necessary  under  Scott's  name. 

Ernest  Thompson  Seton.  Biography  of  a  Grizzly. 
A  nature  writer  who  for  the  most  part  wisely  and 
artistically  embodies  his  knowledge  of  animals  in 
fiction  where  they  are  not  subjected  to  those  acid 
tests  of  fact  which  have  recently  betrayed  the  base 
metal  in  some  of  the  other  modern  writers  about 
nature. 

Anna  Sewell.    Blach  Beauty. 

The  story  of  a  horse;  a  tract  in  the  interests  of 
kindness  to  animals  which  proved  to  be  more  than 

90 


The  Reading  of  Fiction 

a  tract,  a  charming  and  immensely  popular  piece  of 
imaginative  writing. 

Henryk   Sienkiwicz.     The  Deluge,     Quo    Vadis, 
With  Fire  and  Sword. 
In  the  translation  by  Jeremiah  Curtin. 

William  Gilmore  Simms  (1806-YO).     The  Scout 

A  writer  historically  important  to  Americans 
because  he  had  a  great  vogue  in  his  day  and 
accomplished  much  in  a  time  when  there  was 
no  American  literature  south  of  Poe's  Richmond. 
Simms  is  an  inferior  writer,  but  "  The  Scout " 
is  a  vigorous  narrative  and  will  interest  young 
readers. 

Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  (1Y5 1-1816).     Dra- 
matic Works. 
In  Bohns  Library  and  in  one  volume  of  Every- 
marl's  Library. 

Joseph  Henry  Shorthouse.     John  Inglesant. 

Annie  Trumbull  Slosson.  Seven  Dreamers. 
Story-Tell  Lib. 

Francis  Hopkinson  Smith.  Colonel  Carter  of 
Cartersville. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  (1849-94).  Treasure 
Island.  Prince  Otto.  Kidnapped.  David  Bal- 
four. The  Merry  Men.  Dr.  Jehyll  and  Mr. 
Hyde.  The  Black  Arrow.  The  Master  of  Bal- 
lantrae.    St.  Ives. 

91 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Fbank  Richard  Stockton  (1834-1902).  Rudder 
Grange,  The  Casting  Away  of  Mrs.  Leeks  and 
Mrs.  AlesJiine.  The  Floating  Prince  and  Other 
Fairy  Tales.  The  Lady  or  the  Tiger?  A  Chosen 
Few.     A  Story-Teller's  Pack. 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  (1812-96).  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin. 

Ruth  McEnery  Stuart.     The  Golden  Wedding. 
Sonny. 
Perhaps  the  wittiest  of  all  contemporaneous  writ- 
ers about  southern  life. 

Joi^ATHAN  Swift  (1667-1745).  Gullivers  Travels. 
There  are  several  editions  of  "  Gulliver  "  prepared 
for  schools.  It  is  to  be  found  in  Everyman's  Li- 
brary. The  book  is,  of  course,  a  satirical  essay  on 
man;  it  is  also  a  masterpiece  of  fictitious  narrative. 

William  Makepeace  Thackeray  (1811-63). 

'No  list  of  titles  is  necessary  under  this  name. 
Leof  I^^icolaevich  Tolstoi.     War  and  Peace. 

Advanced  students  of  French  can  read  the  French 
version  of  this  novel.  A  good  English  version  is 
that  by  Leo  Wiener. 

Anthony  Trollope  (1815-82).  The  Warden. 
Barchester  Towers.  Framley  Parsonage.  Dr. 
Thome.  The  Small  House  at  Allington.  Last 
Chronicle  of  Barset.  (The  foregoing  six  con- 
stitute the  Chronicles  of  Barsetshire.)  Can 
You  Forgive  Her?  Phineas  Finn.  Phineas 
Redux.  The  Prime  Minister.  The  Duke's  Chil- 
92 


The  Readins:  of  Fiction 


o 


dren.  The  Eustace  Diamonds.  (The  foregoing 
six  constitute  the  Parliamentary  Novels.)  Is 
He  Popenjoy  f  Orley  Farm.  The  Vicar  of  Bull- 
hampton.  (The  last  are  called  the  Manor 
House  Novels.) 
This  list,  disproportionately  long  perhaps,  seems 
justifiable  because  Trollope  wrote  an  incredible 
number  of  novels  not  all  of  which  are  equally  good, 
and  because  his  books  are  in  the  present  quarter 
century  not  so  widely  read  as  they  should  be.  After 
Dickens,  Thackeray,  and  George  Eliot,  who  are  the 
highest  peaks  in  the  half  century  (we  cannot  quite 
measure  Meredith  and  Hardy  yet),  Anthony  Trol- 
lope is  easily  fourth.  And  even  among  the  peaks  the 
broad  massive  plateau  of  his  work  seems  more  and 
more  to  have  enduring  solidity.  Like  Balzac  in 
France  (though  little  like  him,  book  for  book),  Trol- 
lope has  written  England's  comedie  humaine.  With 
him  quantity  is  a  quality,  for  he  is  a  master  in  large 
part  by  virtue  of  his  bulk ;  no  other  novelist  seems  to 
have  told  so  much  about  the  daily  life  of  his  nation. 
The  one  thing  lacking  to  make  Trollope  a  very  great 
writer  of  fiction  is  that  his  prose  is  not  eloquent; 
though  it  is  good,  it  has  no  moments  of  supreme  good- 
ness; but  few  other  English  novelists  have  sustained 
such  a  level  of  merit  through  so  many  volumes. 

John"    Townsend    Trowbridge.      Neighbor   Jack- 
wood.     Jack  Hazard  and  His   Fortunes.      A 
Chance  for  Himself.    Doing  His  Best.    Cudjo's 
Cave.     The  Tinkham  Brothers'  Tidemill. 
93 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

lN"o  other  writer  of  equal  ability  has  devoted  him- 
self to  books  foi  boys. 

Ivan   Sergyevich    Turgenieff    (1818-83).      Fa- 
thers and  Children,     Smohe. 
Several  of  TurgeniefF's  novels  have  been  translated 
into  English.     The  English  reader  should,  if  pos- 
sible, read  Russian  novels  in  Erench. 

Alfred  de  Vigny  (1799-1863).    Cinq-Mars. 

This  great  historical  novel  is  in  easy  Erench.  It 
has  been  published  in  an  English  translation. 

Mary  Arnold  Ward  (Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward). 
Robert  Elsmere. 
An  English  writer  of  excellent  ideals  and  deep 
seriousness,  overrated  by  Americans  who  seem  to 
think  that  she  is  giving  them  the  "  true  inwardness  " 
of  British  high  life. 

Elizabeth  Cherry  Waltz.     Pa  Gladden. 

Humorous  and  touching  stories  of  a  Kentucky 
farmer. 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  (1829-1900).  A  Little 
Journey  in  the  World.    The  Golden  House. 

John  Watson  ("Ian  Maclaren").  Beside  the 
Bonnie  Brier  Bush.  The  Days  of  Auld  Lang 
Syne. 

Edward  N^oyes  Westcott.    David  Harum. 

An  illustration  of  the  fact  that  a  true  humorous 
character  will  catch  the  fancy  of  the  world,  no  mat- 
ter in  how  defective  a  plot  it  is  embodied. 

94 


The  Heading  of  Fiction 

Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  (Mrs.  Riggs).  The  Birds* 
Christmas  Carol,  Penelope's  Progress.  The 
Story  of  Patsy.  Timothy's  Quest.  Rebecca  of 
Sunnyhrook  Farm. 

Mary  Eleanor  Wilkins  (Mrs.  Freeman).  A 
Humble  Rom/ince.  A  New  England  Nun. 
Jane  Field.  Pembroke.  Jerome,  a  Poor  Man. 
Silence  and  Other  Stories. 

Owen  Wister.     The  Virginian.    Lady  Baltimore. 

Israel  Zangwill.  Children  of  the  Ghetto.  Dream- 
ers of  the  Ghetto. 


95 


CHAPTEE   Y 
THE  READING   OF  POETRY 

WILEN  Julia  Bryant,  tlie  daughter  of  William 
Cullen  Bryant,  was  a  child,  a  neighbor  of  the 
poet  made  her  first  call,  and  was  shown  into  the 
parlor.  She  found  the  small  Julia  seated  on  the  floor 
with  an  illustrated  volume  of  Milton  in  her  lap.  She 
knew,  of  course,  that  the  pictures  and  not  the  text 
engaged  the  child's  attention,  but  by  way  of  begin- 
ning an  acquaintance,  she  asked: 

"  Reading  poetry  already,  little  girl ''  ? 

Julia  looked  up  and  regarded  her  gravely.  Then 
with  an  air  of  politely  correcting  ignorance,  she 
explained : 

"  People  don't  read  poetry.  Papas  write  poetry, 
and  mamas  sing  poetry,  and  little  girls  learn  to  say 
poetry,  but  nobody  reads  poetry.  That  isn't  what 
it's  for." 

If  the  several  members  of  all  families  were  as 
happily  accounted  for  as  those  in  Bryant's  house- 
hold, the  Muses  would  not  live  so  remote  from  this 
world.  That  mothers  sing  poetry  and  little  girls  say 
it  is  enough  to  keep  it  everlastingly  alive.  The 
trouble  is  that  few  households  are  blessed  with  papas 
who  write  poetry;  and  there  are  none  too  many 
papas  who  read  it. 

96 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

If  we  have  not  learned  to  read  poetry,  let  us 
begin  now.  Suppose  we  read  and  commit  to  memory 
the  following  stanza,  and  then  talk  a  little  about  it. 

Thou  wast  not  born  for  death,  immortal  Bird! 

No  hungry  generations  tread  thee  down; 
The  voice  I  heard  this  passing  night  was  heard 

In  ancient  days  by  emperor  and  clown : 
Perhaps  the  self-same  song  that  found  a  path 

Through  the  sad  heart  of  Ruth,  when,  sick  for  home, 
She  stood  in  tears  amid  the  alien  corn; 
The  same  that  oft-times  hath 
Charmed  magic  casements,  opening  on  the  foam 

Of  perilous  seas,  in  faery  lands  forlorn. 

This  is  from  Keats's  "  Ode  to  a  !N"ightingale." 
It  is  one  of  the  most  musical,  most  magical  stanzas 
in  all  English  poetry;  that  much  anyone  can  tell 
you  who  has  read  the  poets.  But  to  tell  you  in 
what  consists  its  glory  is  beyond  any  critic  who 
is  not  a  poet;  nothing  of  analysis  can  add  to  the 
effect  it  is  making  in  your  ears,  in  your  brain,  now 
that  you  have  committed  it  to  memory.  One  of  the 
best  of  English  critics — and  he  was  a  poet,  too — 
Matthew  Arnold,  in  his  essay,  "  The  Study  of 
Poetry,"  made  but  a  dull  and  wordy  discourse  when 
he  tried  to  tell  what  the  qualities  of  poetry  are. 
Only  by  reading  the  rest  of  the  poem,  and  then  the 
rest  of  Keats,  and  then  other  poets,  can  you  in- 
crease for  yourself  the  delight  of  those  wonderful 
lines.  If  they  do  not  tempt  you  to  the  great  ex- 
cursion into  the  poets,  you  have  not  read  them  over, 
you  have  not  repeated  them  aloud  often  enough. 

97 


A  Guide  to  Reading 


& 


Only  for  the  sake  of  dwelling  upon  these  lines,  and 
because  we  have  agreed  to  talk  about  poetry,  and 
not  because  our  comment  can  reveal  the  secret,  let 
us  go  back  and  study  the  stanza. 

The  nightingale's  song  is  the  voice  of  immortality.- 
It  releases  the  individual  soul  from  the  present  hour, 
from  the  struggle  of  life  and  makes  it  one  with  the 
great  experiences  of  the  race.  The  imagination 
sweeps  over  all  history  on  the  wings  of  those  first 
four  lines,  and  then  carries  us  into  the  world  of 
religious  story,  in  the  lines  recalling  the  Book  of 
Ruth.  And  finally  we  are  borne  out  of  the  human 
world  into  fairyland.     All  this  in  a  single  stanza! 

Every  poem  of  high  quality,  every  one  of  the 
treasured  passages  from  long  poems,  makes  such  a 
magic  flight  into  the  realm  of  eternal  ideas,  so  that 
it  is  commonly  said  that  poetry  is  "  uplifting.'*  Life 
and  death  and  Heaven  and  the  stars  are  the  poet's 
subjects.  And  the  poem  of  common  things,  in  praise 
of  simple  virtues  and  domestic  happiness,  such  as 
have  made  Burns  and  Longfellow  and  Whittier  so 
dear  to  the  heart,  have  the  same  kind  of  power  in  less 
degree;  if  they  do  not  transport  us  to  Heaven  they 
reveal  the  seed  of  immortality  in  daily  circumstance. 

Keats  bears  the  imagination  over  the  world  and 
beyond  it  in  a  single  stanza.  All  poetry  of  the 
highest  rank  has  this  power  to  utter  eternity  in  a  few 
words.  And  though  at  first  it  seems  a  contradictory 
thing  to  say,  it  is  true  that  the  long  poem  has  the 
same  quality  of  compression;  it  makes  long  flights 
of  idea  in  relatively  short  compass  of  words.     The 

98 


The  Heading  of  Poetry 

time  of  reading,  the  time  that  the  physical  eye  needs 
to  catch  the  winged  sentences,  is  nothing.  What, 
you  say,  "The  Faerie  Queene,^'  "Paradise  Lost," 
"  Hamlet,''  the  "  Iliad,"  the  "  Idylls  of  the  King  " 
are  compressed  so  that  the  time  it  takes  to  read  them 
is  annihilated?  Just  that.  The  complete  works  of  a 
great  poet  do  not  fill  more  space  than  one  or  two 
long  novels.  Poetry  is  greater  than  prose  if  only 
because  it  expresses  noble  ideas  in  fewer  words;  it 
is  language  at  its  highest  power.  Its  rhymes  and 
rhythms  are  all  a  means  of  conveying  this  power. 
The  person  who  regards  poetry  as  rhymed  sentences 
that  might  as  well  be  put  into  prose,  has  his  eye  on 
the  shell  of  form  and  has  never  felt  the  inner  virtues 
of  poetry.  Poetry  has  its  forms  because  only  in  its 
forms  can  it  say  the  most. 

But  what  of  the  great  lines  of  prose  that  are  as 
eloquent  and  compact  with  thought  as  any  line  of 
poetry  ?  There  is  only  one  answer  to  that.  Such  lines 
of  prose  are  poetry  too.  "  In  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions  "  is  poetry.  That  it  looks  like  prose 
on  the  printed  page  is  a  matter  of  typesetting,  and 
type  is  only  the  outermost  husk  about  the  shell. 
Hear  that  sentence  from  the  Bible,  think  it  and  feel 
it,  and  you  will  know  that  it  has  high  poetic  quality. 
The  intensity  of  language,  the  heat  of  high  passion 
has  made  the  diamond;  the  diamond  is  more  beauti- 
ful after  it  is  cut,  but  cutting  cannot  make  a  diamond. 
The  outward  form  we  shall  enjoy,  but  we  must  look 
inward  for  the  essential  quality.  As  our  Bible  is 
printed,  the  following  passage  from  Ecclesiastes  has 

99 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

the  appearance  of  prose,  yet  it  has,  too,  something 
like  the  stanzaic  divisions  of  poetry. 

Remember  now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth, 
while  the  evil  days  come  not,  nor  the  years  draw  nigh,  when 
thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them ; 

While  the  sun,  or  the  light,  or  the  moon,  or  the  stars  be  not 
darkened,  nor  the  clouds  return  after  the  rain: 

In  the  day  when  the  keepers  of  the  house  shall  tremble, 
and  the  strong  men  shall  bow  themselves,  and  the  grinders 
cease  because  they  are  few,  and  those  that  look  out  of  the 
windows  be  darkened. 

And  the  doors  shall  be  shut  in  the  streets,  when  the  sound 
of  the  grinding  is  low,  and  he  shall  rise  up  at  the  voice  of  the 
bird,  and  all  the  daughters  of  music  shall  be  brought  low; 

Also  when  they  shall  be  afraid  of  that  which  is  high,  and 
fears  shall  be  in  the  way,  and  the  almond  tree  shall  flourish, 
and  the  grasshopper  shall  be  a  burden,  and  desire  shall  fail: 
because  man  goeth  to  his  long  home,  and  the  mourners  go 
about  the  streets : 

Or  ever  the  silver  cord  be  loosed,  or  the  golden  bowl  be 
broken,  or  the  pitcher  be  broken  at  the  fountain,  or  the 
wheel  broken  at  the  cistern ; 

Then  shall  the  dust  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was:  and  the 
spirit  shall  return  unto  God  who  gave  it. 

Whatever  else  this  may  be,  it  is  poetry  of  high 
power.  Millions  of  men  have  found  in  the  Bible 
something  which  is  not  in  other  books,  but  that  it 
has  in  common  with  other  great  books  the  miracle 
of  poetic  utterance  every  right  view  of  the  Bible 
must  admit.  The  passage  we  have  just  quoted  is 
in  beauty  equal  and  not  wholly  dissimilar  to  the 
stanza  from  Keats.  The  Biblical  poet  has  into  a 
few  words  condensed  the  tragic  symbols  of  death 

100 


The  Reading  of  Poetr.j 

and  sorrow;  and  from  their  dust  and  dissolution  hi.s 
soul  has  aspired  upward  to  the  stars. 

If  the  stanza  from  Keats  and  the  verse  from  the 
Bible  are  both  essentially  poetic,  what  becomes  of 
certain  devices  of  arrangement  which  are  in  Keats 
and  not  in  the  Bible  poem,  such  devices  as  rhymes  and 
regularity  of  accent?  These  are  but  instruments  of 
beauty;  the  words  and  their  arrangement  are  the 
result  of  the  inward  passion  and  beauty  of  the 
thought,  and  we  in  reading  are  acted  upon  by  that 
result,  and  feel  again  the  passion  and  idea  that  pro- 
duced it. 

In  inferior  poetry  cause  and  effect  are  reversed  or 
fail  altogether.  Thousands  of  poets  have  tried  to 
make  poetry  by  devices  of  rhyme  and  line  division, 
by  deliberately  arranging  vowels  and  consonants 
into  pleasant  sounds;  almost  any  conventionally 
educated  person  can  learn  to  do  this,  just  as  almost 
anybody  with  practice  can  learn  to  play  a  piece  on 
the  piano  and  carefully  obey  every  sign  on  the  music 
score.  But  no  music  results,  only  an  empty  regular- 
ity of  sound.  Because  there  are  so  many  of  these 
mechanical  pianists,  the  sound  of  the  piano  seldom 
attracts  and  arrests  us.  Because  so  many  verses, 
thousands  in  the  monthly  magazines,  have  merely 
the  outward  form  of  poetry,  thousands  of  persons 
have  come  to  believe  that  poetry  is  an  artificial  trick 
of  words.  The  heart  of  poetry  is  emotion  and  a 
sense  of  beauty.  The  great  emotions,  patriotism, 
religion,  love,  acting  upon  the  poet,  turn  his  words 
into  magic  sequences.     When  the  poetry  is  finished 

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A  Guide  to  Reading 

and  arranged  on  the  printed  page,  we  find,  true,  tliat 
it  has  a  form,  that  it  has  metrical  excellences,  that 
its  varieties  of  sound  are  thus  and  so;  the  poets  are 
masters  of  at  least  as  many  technicalities  as  the  little 
versifiers.  The  test  comes  when  we  read  the  sequence 
of  words  cooled,  as  it  were,  into  a  set  form,  and 
touched  hy  their  appeal  to  our  inward  sense  feel 
them  start  into  warm  life  again. 

If  we  go  far  enough  in  our  reading  to  study 
poetry,  then  we  shall  expect  to  learn  about  the  tech- 
nical methods  and  rhetorical  elements  of  verse;  we 
shall  expect  to  learn  about  the  lives  of  the  poets  and 
about  their  growth  in  their  art.  Just  so  the  lover 
of  music  will  wish  to  study  the  laws  of  sound,  even 
the  mechanical  and  physical  properties  of  musical 
instruments,  mastering  from  a  scientific  point  of 
view  the  conditions  and  materials  of  the  art. 
Such  study  helps  us  to  appreciate  great  music  and 
great  poetry.  But  it  is  not  necessary.  The  orchestra 
will  act  upon  us  without  our  knowing  how  it  is 
arranged.  The  true  poem  will  act  on  us  if  we  know 
nothing  more  than  our  own  language  and  our  own 
feelings.  Our  pleasant  task  is  to  offer  ourselves  to 
the  great  poem  with  attention  and  a  desire  for 
pleasure. 

Attention  and  a  desire  for  pleasure  are  easily 
distracted  in  those  who  have  not  the  habit  of  read- 
ing poetry.  And  poetry  is  often  surrounded  by 
unnecessary  distractions.  The  very  zeal  of  those  who 
would  draw  our  sympathies  to  it  leads  them  to  stand 
in  the  light  attempting  to  explain  what  needs  no 

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The  Reading  of  Poetry 

explanation,  what,  indeed,  cannot  be  explained.  The 
lecturer  upon  music  too  often  talks  while  the  or- 
chestra is  playing.  After  one  knows  Shakespeare,  a 
discourse  on  the  "  lessons  of  the  tragedies ''  may  en- 
large one's  understanding.  But  such  disquisitions 
are  a  forbidding  introduction  to  any  poet.  We  have 
in  America  many  worthy  persons  who  lecture  on  the 
ethical  beliefs  of  Robert  Browning.  Of  course  any 
interest,  any  occasion  that  will  bring  in  a  new  "  con- 
vert," and  lead  him  to  think  of  Brow^ning  at  all,  is 
a  gain — the  principal  excuse  for  lectures  and  crit- 
icisms is  that  they  do  invite  wandering  souls  in  to 
meet  a  poet.  But  it  is  usually  true  that  two  hours' 
reading  in  Browning  is  more  delightful  and  more 
profitable  than  a  two  hours'  lecture  about  him.  And 
it  is  often  the  case  that  lectures  about  his  philosophy 
repel  readers  who  might  enjoy  his  poetry.  The 
lesson  of  poetry  is  beauty ;  the  meaning  of  poetry  is 
exalted  emotions.  The  private  special  beliefs  of  the 
poet  are  of  interest,  because  those  beliefs  raised  the 
poet's  intelligence  to  a  white  heat,  and  that  heat 
left  us  verse  crystals  which  are  beautiful  long  after 
the  poet's  beliefs  have  passed  away.  Through  his 
beliefs  the  poet  reaches  to  great  passions  that  endure, 
and  anyone  can  understand  them  without  knowing 
how  the  poet  arrived  at  them.  If  a  poet  cannot 
deliver  his  message,  a  critic  cannot  do  it  for  him. 
Shelley  was  a  worshiper  of  democracy ;  Shakespeare 
was  a  believer  in  the  divinity  of  kings.  Browning 
was  an  optimist.  Omar  Khayyam,  as  Edward  Fitz- 
gerald rendered  him  in  English  poetry,  was  a  kind 

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A  Guide  to  Reading 

of  pessimistic  fatalist.  All  this  is  interesting  to  know. 
But  the  reader  of  poetry  does  not,  in  the  immediate 
enjoyment  of  the  poets,  vex  himself  with  these  divers- 
ities of  faith.    Hear  the  poets  themselves: 

Shakespeare's  unrighteous  king,  Macbeth,  hedged 
round  by  his  enemies,  dulled  in  feeling  yet  still 
keenly  intelligent,  hears  of  the  death  of  his  queen. 

She  should  have  died  hereafter; 
There  would  have  been  a  time  for  such  a  word. 
To-morrow,  and  to-morrow,  and  to-morrow, 
Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day 
To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time; 
And  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools 
The  way  to  dusty  death.     Out,  out,  brief  candle! 
Life's  but  a  walking  shadow,  a  poor  player 
That  struts  and  frets  his  hour  upon  the  stage 
And  then  is  heard  no  more.     It  is  a  tale 
Told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  soimd  and  fury, 
Signifying  nothing. 

Shelley,  the  lover  of  human  liberty  and  the  wide 
freedom  of  nature,  chants  to  the  West  Wind : 

Make  my  thy  lyre,  even  as  the  forest  is; 
What  if  my  leaves  are  falling  like  its  own  I 
The  tumult  of  thy  mighty  harmonies 

Will  take  from  both  a  deep,  autumnal  tone, 
Sweet  though  in  sadness.     Be  thou,  spirit  fierce, 
My  spirit!    Be  thou  me,  impetuous  one! 

Drive  my  dead  thoughts  over  the  universe 
Like  withered  leaves  to  quicken  a  new  birth! 
And,  by  the  incantation  of  this  verse, 
104 


SHELLEY 


The  Eeading  of  Poetry 

Scatter,  as  from  an  unextinguished  hearth 
Ashes  and  sparks,  my  words  among  mankind  I 
Be  through  my  Hps  to  unawakened  earth 

The  trumpet  of  a  prophecy!    O,  wind, 

If  Winter  comes,  can  Spring  be  far  behind? 

Hear  Browning,  the  athletic  optimist: 

The  year's  at  the  spring 
And  day's  at  the  morn; 
Morning's  at  seven; 
The  hillside's  dew-pearled; 
The  lark's  on  the  wing; 
The  snail's  on  the  thorn: 
God's  in  his  heaven — 
All's  right  with  the  world! 

And  of  himself,  at  the  close  of  his  life.  Brown- 
ing sings: 

One  who  never  turned  his  back  but  marched  breast  forward, 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break. 
Never  dreamed,  though    right  were  worsted,  wrong  would 
triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  ere  baffled  to  fight  better. 
Sleep  to  wake. 

Finally  listen  to  the  beauty-loving  pessimist  that 
Fitzgerald  brought  out  of  Persia  and  set  among  the 
jewels  in  the  crown  of  English  poetry: 

So  when  the  Angel  of  the  darker  Drink 
At  last  shall  find  you  by  the  River-brink, 
And,  offering  his  Cup,  invite  your  Soul 
Forth  to  your  Lips  to  quaff— you  shall  not  shrink. 
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A  Guide  to  Reading 

I  sent  my  Soul  through  the  Invisible, 
Some  letter  of  that  After-life  to  spell : 

And  after  many  Days  my  Soul  returned 

And  said,  '' Behold,  Myself  am  Heaven  and  Hell.** 

Here  are  four  poets  of  different  generations  and 
different  beliefs ;  large  volumes  have  been  written  to 
expound  each  and  tell  us  the  meaning,  the  philosophy, 
the  development,  the  tendencies,  the  influence  of 
this  poet  and  that.  But  see  them  together:  no  ex- 
planation of  their  meanings  can  divide  them,  for 
thej  are  all  poets,  and  no  group  of  men  on  earth 
are  liker  one  to  another  in  purpose  than  great  poets 
are  like  to  each  other.  They  are  all  singing  the 
eternal  in  words  of  unmatchable  power.  They  are 
wondrously  alike  in  their  celebration  of  beauty  and 
high  feelings. 

The  great  poet  differs  not  from  other  great  poets, 
but  from  inferior  ones;  he  differs  from  his  equals 
mainly  in  manner  of  expression.  The  new  poet 
is  he  who  brings  the  old  messages  in  ways  that  no 
other  poet  has  conceived,  and  the  old  poet  is  always 
new,  because  he  has  attained  to  beautiful  utterance 
of  ideas  that  we  cannot  outgrow,  which  indeed  most 
of  mankind  have  not  yet  reached.  Prose  becomes 
old-fashioned  (except  the  Bible,  which  has  a  special 
place  in  our  life  and  is,  moreover,  largely  poetic  in 
substance) ;  the  prose  of  Shakespeare's  time  and  Mil- 
ton's is  difficult  to  read,  it  seems  written  in  an 
antique  language.  But  Shakespeare  and  Milton  are 
the  poetry  of  to-day  and  of  uncounted  to-morrows. 

l^sTot  to  read  poetry  is  to  miss  the  greatest  ideas 
106 


The  Beading  of  Poetry 

in  the  world,  to  disregard  the  noblest  and  most  ex- 
alted work  that  the  human  mind  has  achieved.  To 
poetry  all  other  arts  and  sciences  are  in  some  way 
inferior.  !N^ot  music,  nor  painting,  nor  the  laws  of 
government,  nor  the  discoveries  of  mechanics,  nor 
anything  else  that  man  has  done  has  the  right  of 
poetry  to  be  called  divine,  except  only  that  of  which 
poetry  is  the  vehicle,  which  is  in  a  sense  one  with  it, 
religious  prophecy  and  worship.  Whether  religion 
and  poetry  are  one,  as  some  philosophers  hold,  it  is 
a  fact  of  history  that  the  great  religious  prophets 
have  had  the  gifts  of  poets,  and  the  poets  are  all 
singers  of  hymns  and  incantations  which  stir  in 
our  hearts  the  religious  sense.  We  need  not  go 
further  into  this  question  than  to  this  simple  truth, 
that  the  man  who  has  no  poetry  in  him  is  likely  to 
be  an  irreligious  man,  not  necessarily  lacking  in 
goodness  and  righteousness,  but  lacking  the  upward 
aspiration  of  the  truly  religious  mind. 

Come,  poet,  come! 
A  thousand  laborers  ply  their  task, 
And  what  it  tends  to  scarcely  ask, 
And  trembling  thinkers  on  the  brink 
Shiver  and  know  not  how  to  think. 
To  tell  the  purport  of  their  pain. 
And  what  our  silly  joys  contain ; 
In  lasting  lineaments  portray 
The  substance  of  the  shadowy  day; 
Our  real  and  inner  deeds  rehearse, 
And  make  our  meaning  clear  in  verse: 
Come,  Poet,  come !  or  but  in  vain 
We  do  the  work  or  feel  the  pain. 
And  gather  up  the  seeming  gain, 
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A  Guide  to  Reading 

Unless  before  the  end  thou  come 
To  take,  ere  they  are  lost,  their  sum. 

Come,  Poet,  come! 
To  give  an  utterance  to  the  dumb, 
And  make  vain  babblers  silent,  come; 
A  thousand  dupes  point  here  and  there, 
Bewildered  by  the  show  and  glare; 
And  wise  men  half  have  learned  to  doubt 
Whether  we  are  not  best  without. 
Come,  Poet;  both  but  wait  to  see 
Their  error  proved  to  them  in  thee. 

Come,  Poet,  come! 

In  vain  I  seem  to  call.     And  yet 

Think  not  the  living  times  forget. 

Ages  of  heroes  fought  and  fell 

That  Homer  in  the  end  might  tell; 

O'er  groveling  generations  past 

Upstood  the  Doric  fane  at  last; 

And  countless  hearts  on  countless  years 

Had  wasted  thoughts,  and  hopes,  and  fears. 

Rude  laughter  and  unmeaning  tears. 

Ere  England  Shakespeare  saw,  or  Rome 

The  pure  perfection  of  her  dome. 

Others,  I  doubt  not,  if  not  we, 

The  issue  of  our  toils  shall  see ; 

Young  children  gather  as  their  own 

The  harvest  that  the  dead  had  sown. 

The  dead  forgotten  and  unknown. 

Arthur  Hugh  Clough. 


108 


CHAPTEK   YI 

THE  READING   OF  FOETRY—iCorUinued) 

TI^  almost  every  American  household  there  will 
"*■  be  some  volume  of  poetry  through  which  the 
young  reader  can  make  his  entrance  into  the  en- 
chanted world;  there  will  be  a  volume  of  Shake- 
speare, an  old  copy  of  "  Paradise  Lost  "  or  the  works 
of  Longfellow  or  Tennyson.  In  our  day  a  desire  to 
read  is  seldom  thwarted  by  lack  of  books.  Indeed, 
it  sometimes  seems  as  if  the  very  abundance  of 
books  made  us  so  familiar  with  their  backs  that  we 
do  not  value  the  treasures  inside.  The  biographies 
of  our  grandfathers  tell  us  of  walks  of  five  miles 
to  secure  some  coveted  volume,  and  a  volume  so 
secured  was  not  skimmed  or  neglected;  the  effort  to 
get  it  made  it  doubly  precious. 

If  one  is  left  to  choose  the  door  through  which 
to  enter  the  realm  of  poetry,  a  good  anthology  will 
prove  a  broad  approach.  There  is  none  better  than 
Palgrave's  "  Golden  Treasury  of  Songs  and  Lyrics." 
It  is  inexpensive,  so  that  anyone  can  save  enough 
pennies  to  buy  it.  It  is  convenient  to  carry  in  one's 
pocket,  a  virtue  that  makes  it  preferable  to  larger 
anthologies,  to  those  old-fashioned  "  household  col- 
lections "  printed  in  double  columns.    If  all  our  men 

109 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

and  boys  had  the  "  Golden  Treasury  "  in  their  coat 
pockets,  what  a  civilization  we  should  have  at  the 
end  of  ten  years!  In  order  to  keep  up  with  us  the 
ladies  would  have  to  provide  pockets  in  their  dresses 
or  carry  more  spacious  handbags  than  the  tyranny 
of  style  now  permits. 

The  selections  in  Palgrave  or  in  the  four  volumes 
of  Ward's  "  English  Poets,"  are  so  rich  and  varied 
that  no  reader  can  fail  to  find  his  own  poet,  and 
the  next  step  will  be  to  get  a  larger  selection  from 
that  poet's  works.  All  the  English  poets  have  been 
published  in  inexpensive  volumes  of  selections,  many 
of  them  in  the  same  Golden  Treasury  Series;  and 
as  poets,  like  other  human  beings,  are  not  always 
at  their  best,  an  edition  which  contains  only  the  best 
will  save  the  reader  from  the  unfortunate  experience 
of  meeting  a  poet  for  the  first  time  in  his  inferior 
work.  When  we  have  learned  really  to  like  a  poet, 
we  shall  wish  to  have  his  complete  works,  but  for 
the  young  reader  most  modern  poets  are  better  for 
the  suppression  of  their  less  admirable  passages. 
Only  three  or  four — Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton, 
our  greatest  poets — wrote  long  poems  which  to  be  en- 
joyed at  their  fullest  must  be  read  entire.  Although 
it  is  true  that  poetry  consists  of  great  lines  and  that 
a  collection  of  short  poems  and  passages  will  be 
enough  to  nourish  the  soul  for  its  whole  earthly 
life,  yet  supreme  poetry  is  built  on  a  mighty  plan. 
Brief  lyrics  and  bits  of  song  are  like  jewels,  precious, 
complete,  beautiful.  Great  poems,  epics  and  dramas, 
are  like  cathedrals  in  which  the  jewels  are  set  in  the 

110 


The  Heading  of  Poetry 

walls  and  in  the  windows.  One  might  read  all  the 
fine  passages  from  Shakespeare  and  yet  not  feel 
Shakespeare's  highest,  that  is,  his  entire,  poetic 
power. 

For  the  marvelous  speeches  and  songs,  however 
satisfying  in  themselves,  lose  some  of  their  meaning 
when  taken  out  of  the  structure  of  which  they  are  a 
part.  The  stained  glass  window  is  beautiful  in  the 
artist's  studio,  but  when  it  is  set  in  the  church  and 
the  light  falls  through  it,  it  becomes  part  of  a  beauty 
greater  than  its  own.  So,  too,  "  Macbeth  ''  is  greater 
than  Shakespeare's  lyrics,  "  Paradise  Lost "  is 
greater  than  all  of  Milton's  short  poems  taken  to- 
gether. The  true  reader  of  poetry  will  pass  beyond 
the  delight  of  the  perfect  stanza  to  the  wider  joy 
of  the  complete  drama,  the  complete  epic. 

In  approaching  a  long  poem,  the  modern  impa- 
tient reader  is  discouraged  sometimes  by  the  number 
of  pages  of  solid  verse  which  follow  those  first  pages 
into  which  he  has  plunged.  It  is  well  to  remember 
that  in  reading  poetry,  a  little  traveling  of  the  eye 
takes  the  imagination  on  long  journeys,  and  that 
imagination  will  join  for  us  the  first  page  and  the 
last  even  if  we  have  spent  six  months  in  making 
the  intervening  journey.  "  Hamlet "  need  not  be 
read  in  a  day.  If  one  reads  a  few  lines  at  a  time 
one  will  soon  be  in  the  depths  of  it,  and  there  is  no 
danger  of  losing  one's  way.  We  can  spend  a  month 
in  the  first  perusal  or  we  can  run  rapidly  through 
it  in  the  three  hours  which  it  is  supposed  to  occupy 
on  the  stage.     We  can  go  backward  and  forward  in 

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A  Guide  to  Reading 

it,  pause  as  long  as  we  will  on  a  single  speech,  or 
fly  swiftly  upon  the  wings  of  the  action.  The  sense 
of  leisure,  of  independence  of  hourly  circumstance, 
is  one  of  the  spiritual  uses  of  poetry.  The  poet  and 
our  own  nature  will  determine  the  time  for  us. 
When  we  follow  the  pageant  of  Shakespeare's  sad 
histories  of  the  death  of  kings,  we  shall  not,  I  hope, 
comport  ourselves  like  tourists  hurrying  through  a 
picture  gallery  in  order  that  we  may  have  "  done  " 
it  before  our  train  goes.  We  shall  not  be  so  mis- 
guided as  to  plume  ourselves  when  we  enter  in  our 
diary :  "  Read  two  plays  of  Shakespeare  this  week." 
Reading  that  consists  merely  in  passing  the  eye  over 
the  page  is  not  reading  at  all.  When  we  become  con- 
scious of  turning  pages  without  any  inward  re- 
sponse, it  is  time  to  lay  the  book  down  and  do  some- 
thing else.  When  we  are  really  reading,  we  shall 
not  be  conscious  of  the  book  and  we  shall  not  know 
how  many  pages  we  have  read — until  we  wake  up 
out  of  dreamland  and  come  back  into  our  own  world. 
Two  or  three  plays  of  Shakespeare  are  being  read 
every  year  in  every  high  school  in  America.  It  is 
a  common  experience  of  teachers  that  the  pupils  re- 
gard Shakespeare's  plays  as  the  hardest  part  of  the 
prescribed  reading.  One  reason  is  that  these  dra- 
matic poems  are  through  a  regrettable  necessity 
made  the  text  of  lessons  in  language.  The  atmos- 
phere of  study  and  duty  surrounding  "  A  Midsum- 
mer IsTight's  Dream "  in  the  classroom  takes  the 
charm  out  of  that  fairy  play.  This  is  not  the  fault 
of  the  teachers  and  it  is  not  for  us  to  criticise  them ; 

112 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

the  wisest  leaders  in  education  have  not  found  a 
way  to  make  the  study  of  Shakespeare  in  school  less 
laborious  than  it  is.  And  many  of  them  think  that 
it  is  well  that  lessons  should  be  hard  nuts  to  crack, 
that  the  young  mind  is  better  disciplined  if  its 
schoolday  tasks  are  not  made  too  delightful  and  easy. 
Some  teachers  believe  that  the  old-fashioned  hard  dig- 
ging at  books  is  being  in  too  large  a  measure  replaced 
by  kindergarten  methods,  which  are  so  unadvisedly 
extended  that  even  a  geometry  lesson  is  treated  as  a 
game. 

For  the  present  we  will  keep  our  consideration  of 
the  uses  and  delights  of  reading  apart  from  the 
problems  of  the  schools,  and  regard  Shakespeare  as 
we  regard  Scott — a  friend  to  enjoy  in  leisure  hours. 
I  should  advise,  then,  that  pupils  who  are  reading 
Shakespeare  in  school  select  other  plays  than  those 
prescribed  in  class  and  come  to  them  as  to  a  novel 
chosen  for  pleasure.  If  the  class  work  requires  a 
study  of  "  A  Midsummer  E'ight's  Dream,"  let  the 
young  reader  try  "  The  Tempest "  by  himself.  If 
"  Julius  Caesar  "is  a  part  of  the  winter's  school 
task,  let  us  in  vacation  time  slip  "  Macbeth "  or 
"  Henry  V "  into  our  pockets.  And  while  our 
friends  in  the  other  hammock  are  reading  a  romance 
of  the  hour,  let  us  be  reading  a  romance  of  the 
ages.  When  we  are  tired  of  reading  and  are  ready 
to  play  that  game  of  tennis,  our  opponent,  who  has 
been  reading  a  book  that  he  bought  on  the  news- 
stand at  the  railroad  station,  will  not  necessarily 
beat  us^  because  we  know  what  he  does  not  know, 

113 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

that  a  gift  of  tennis  balls  comes  into  the  plot  of 
"  Henry  V." 

The  Dauphin  of  France  sends  Henry  the  tennis 
balls  for  a  mocking  gift,  and  Henry  answers : 

When  we  have  matched  our  rackets  to  these  balls, 
We  will,  in  France,  by  God's  grace,  play  a  set 
Shall  strike  his  father's  crown  into  the  hazard. 
Tell  him  he  hath  made  a  match  with  such  a  wrangler 
That  all  the  courts  of  France  will  be  disturbed 
With  chaces. 

That  has  a  spirit  which  your  friend  will  not  find 
in  the  excellent  story  of  a  school  game  which  he 
has  been  reading,  "  How  Ralph  Saved  the  Day." 

The  great  poems  receive  us  on  any  good  ground  of 
interest  which  we  choose  to  tread.  Would  you  have 
a  romantic  novel?  Shakespeare  provides  that  in 
"  As  You  Like  It "  and  "  Twelfth  Night."  Or  a 
military  adventure  ?  There  is  "  Henry  Fifth."  Or 
a  love  tragedy  ?  There  is  "  Romeo  and  Juliet." 
These  satisfy  our  primitive  liking  for  a  good  story. 
And  so  in  some  measure  do  all  great  poems,  for  the 
great  poems  are  epics  and  dramas,  that  is,  stories  in 
verse.  Literature  finds  its  best  structural  material  in 
action  and  event,  and  language  is  best  suited  to  the 
expression  of  actions,  perhaps  because  it  has  been 
made  by  a  world  of  workers  and  doers.  The  most 
effective  means  of  conveying  abstract  ideas  is  through 
story.  The  most  moving  sections  of  the  Bible  are 
narrative,  the  greatest  lessons  are  taught  in  parables 
and  instances.     "  Paradise  Lost "  is  a  narrative  of 

114 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

great  vigor,  for  all  the  dull  debates  and  arguments ; 
and  if  it  was  not  Milton's  primary  intention  to  tell 
a  great  story  for  its  own  sake,  nevertheless  he  did 
tell  a  great  story  and  we  can  enjoy  it  for  its  own 
sake  long  before  we  have  begun,  and  long  after  we 
have  ceased,  to  be  interested  in  his  theology  and 
philosophy. 

To  say  that  great  poets,  Homer,  Virgil,  Dante, 
Spenser,  Shakespeare,  are  romancers  as  truly  as  are 
the  writers  of  prose  novels  is  not  to  belittle  poetry. 
The  highest  thoughts  can  be  conveyed  in  a  story. 
When  a  great  poetic  story-teller  ceases  for  too  many 
lines  to  be  master  of  narrative,  it  will  often  be  found 
that  some  other  poetic  qualities  have  for  the  moment 
died  out  of  him  too.  And  when  he  attempts  to  convey 
great  ideas  with  little  regard  to  their  place  in  a  mov- 
ing sequence  of  events,  he  pays  the  penalty  of  not 
being  read,  he  loses  hold  of  the  reader's  interest.  The 
most  titanic  case  of  the  failure  of  high  poetic 
thoughts  to  win  their  way  to  the  common  heart  of 
man,  because  of  the  disregard  of  narrative  form,  is 
Browning's  "  The  Ring  and  the  Book."  There  the 
story,  a  terrible  and  touching  story,  is  told  over  a 
dozen  times,  and  not  once  told  well.  Imbedded  in 
its  strange  shapelessness  are  wonderful  ideas  and 
passages  of  intense  beauty.  As  a  heap  of  poetry  it 
is  the  only  production  of  the  Victorian  age  that  has 
the  magnitude  of  Shakespeare  and  the  classic  epics. 
Other  poems  of  Browning's,  "  Clive "  and  "  Ivan 
Ivanovitch,"  show  that  he  had  narrative  gifts. 
Some  scenes  in  his  dramas  are  in  emotional  energy 

115 


I 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

and  narrative  progression  unrivaled  by  any  poet 
since  Shakespeare.  But  in  "  The  Eing  and  the 
Book,"  into  which  he  put  his  vt^hole  heart,  he 
would  not  or  could  not  tell  his  story  as  the  experience 
of  all  ages  has  shown  that  stories  must  be  told :  his 
poem  does  not  move  forward  in  a  continuously  high 
and  noble  style.  And  so  most  of  the  world  of  read- 
ers are  deprived  of  the  richness  with  which  he 
freighted  from  his  prodigal  mind  and  great  soul  his 
mighty  rudderless  ship  that  goes  down  in  midocean. 
Shakespeare  told  good  stories  in  almost  all  his 
plays.  He  did  not  invent  the  stories,  but  he  selected 
them  from  the  literature  of  the  world  and  from  other 
Elizabethan  writers,  and  then  enriched  the  narra- 
tive with  every  kind  of  beauty  and  significance  which 
it  would  hold.  On  account  of  their  excellence  as 
narratives  and  their  intensely  human  and  stirring 
materials,  the  plays  of  Shakespeare  enjoyed  some 
measure  of  popularity  even  in  their  own  time,  if 
the  scholars  have  rightly  informed  us ;  and  the  plays 
have  continued  to  hold  the  stage  and  to  interest  many 
of  the  "  great  variety  of  readers ''  who  are  addressed 
in  one  of  the  introductions  to  the  first  collected 
edition  of  Shakespeare's  works.  In  our  time  the 
influence  of  the  schools  has  insured  popular  ac- 
quaintance with  Shakespeare  as  an  object  of  serious 
study.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  increase  in  the 
quantity  of  prose  fiction,  and  the  fact  that  it  is 
easier  to  read  thin  prose  than  rich  poetry,  have  ob- 
scured for  many  readers  the  elementary  delight  of 
Shakespeare's  plays  as  fictitious  romances. 

116 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

One  reason  that  the  inexperienced  reader  regards 
the  reading  of  Shakespeare  as  an  unusual  operation 
of  eye  and  brain  is  that  we  are  not  accustomed 
to  read  the  drama  of  our  own  time ;  so  that  we  have 
not  the  habit  of  following  naked  dialogue  accom- 
panied only  by  a  few  terse  stage  directions.  Since 
Shakespeare's  time  our  literature  has  not  been  so 
rich  in  drama  as  in  other  forms.  Some  of  our 
plays — those  that  have  succeeded  on  the  stage  and 
those  written  in  conventional  dramatic  form  without 
regard  to  performance  on  the  stage — are  worth  read- 
ing. But  the  public  does  not  encourage  the  printing 
of  them.  Many  of  our  writers  shrewdly  make  double 
use  of  their  ideas  and  turn  them  both  into  stage 
form  and  into  prose  fiction.  The  large  number  of 
dramatized  novels  and  "  novelized  "  dramas — Shake- 
speare himself  dramatized  novels — shows  that  in 
England  and  America  we  regard  the  playbook  as 
something  for  the  actor  to  learn  and  represent  to  us  in 
spoken  word  and  action.  In  France  the  latest  play 
is  for  sale  in  the  bookshops  like  the  latest  novel.  If 
our  stage  is  to  return  to  high  literary  standards,  there 
must  grow  up  in  our  public  an  audience  of  intelligent 
playreaders  as  well  as  playgoers.  The  more  intelli- 
gently we  read  plays,  the  more  there  will  be  worth 
reading;  we  can  help  the  stage  to  attain  and  hold  a 
better  level  of  excellence  by  demanding  of  it  that  its 
productions  shall  be  "  literary,"  that  is,  readable. 

That  Shakespeare  is  the  single  dramatist  in  our  lan- 
guage whom  we  feel  we  ought  to  read  is  regrettable. 
It  sets  him  apart  in  a  solitude  which  is  as  artificial 

117 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

in  its  way  as  the  attempt  of  some  critics  to  group 
him  in  a  "  school  of  playwrights."  He  is  solitary 
in  greatness,  quite  lonely  among  his  many  contem- 
poraries *  in  drama,  but  the  form  he  used,  narrative 
dialogue,  ought  to  be  as  familiar  to  us  as  the  novel. 
If  ten  people  read  "  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  "  to 
one  that  reads  "  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,"  the  reason 
is  not  that  "  The  Vicar  "  is  better  work,  but  that  the 
printed  play  looks  strange  to  the  eyes  of  our  read- 
ing public.  Plato  put  his  philosophy  in  dramatic 
dialogue,  apparently  with  the  intention  of  choosing  a 
popular  and  readable  form.  And  the  author  of  the 
Shakespearian  drama  seems  to  have  felt  that  he  had 
chosen  the  most  popular  and  practical  vehicle  of 
ideas.  Perhaps,  if  he  had  known  to  what  a  low  con- 
dition Puritan  prejudice,  the  social  weaknesses  of 
stage  life  and  other  causes  were  to  bring  dramatic 
literature,  he  might  have  turned  his  narrative  genius 
into  other  than  dramatic  form. 

That  we  are  not  readers  of  plays  is  no  special 
fault  of  this  age.  A  hundred  years  ago  Charles  and 
Mary  Lamb  found  a  wide  audience  for  their  "  Tales 
from  Shakespeare."  The  publisher  announced  in 
the  second  edition  that  the  "  Tales,"  intended  prima- 
rily for  children,  had  been  found  "  an  acceptable 
and  improving  present  to  young  ladies  advancing 
to  the  state  of  womanhood."  If  Shakespeare  was  to 
be  retold  for  the  young,  it  was  fortunate  that  Charles 
Lamb  was  selected  as  the  emissary  from  the  land  of 
poetry  to  those  who  had  never  made  the  great  adven- 

^  See  page  56. 
118 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

ture  beyond  the  confines  of  prose.  Yet  it  is  hard 
to  believe  that  Lamb's  "  Tales  "  are  necessary  to  any 
but  lovers  of  Lamb.  There  is  a  danger  that  the 
young  reader,  for  whom  he  designed  the  book  as  a 
door  to  Shakespeare,  will  linger  in  the  vestibule,  con- 
tent with  the  genuine  riches  that  are  there,  and 
will  not  go  on  to  the  greater  riches  of  Shakespeare 
himself.  Shakespeare  told  the  stories  better  than 
another  can  tell  them,  and  anyone  who  knows  enough 
of  the  English  language  to  read  Lamb's  "  Tales  " 
will  find  Shakespeare's  plays  intelligible  to  read, 
just  as  when  performed  on  the  stage  they  are  intel- 
ligible to  the  people  in  the  gallery,  even  to  those  in 
the  boxes.  Eepeated  readings  with  some  reference 
to  simple  explanatory  notes  will  make  the  deep  mean- 
ings and  fine  beauties  ever  more  and  more  clear. 

The  plays  which  a  beginner  should  read  are,  "  A 
Midsummer  Mght's  Dream,"  "  The  Merchant  of 
Venice,"  "As  You  Like  It,"  "Twelfth  Night," 
"  The  Tempest,"  "  Henry  IV,"  "  Henry  V,"  "  Rich- 
ard  III,"  "Eomeo  and  Juliet,"  "Julius  Csesar," 
"Hamlet,"  "Othello,"  "King  Lear,"  and  "Mac- 
beth." The  other  plays  and  the  poems  may,  for  vari- 
ous reasons,  be  reserved  for  the  time  when  one  no 
longer  needs  advice  about  reading. 

We  shall  have  gained  much  of  the  freedom  of  soul 
which  is  the  necessary  condition  of  reading  poetry, 
if  we  make  a  'New  Year's  resolution  not  to  be  fright- 
ened away  from  the  real  mysteries  of  Shakespeare 
by  the  false  mysteries  of  his  editors  and  critics.^ 

*  See  pages  251-4. 
119 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

Shakespeare  speaks  our  language,  but  the  scholars 
speak  a  language  which  they  invented,  as  if  they  in- 
tended to  hold  their  authority  by  wrapping  them- 
selves in  impenetrable  obscurities  which  common  folk 
would  not  try  to  master.  Let  us  not  be  deceived. 
"  The  Tempest "  was  not  written  for  university 
professors.  Let  us  open  it  with  the  same  confident 
curiosity  that  we  should  bring  to  "  Robinson  Crusoe  " 
or  "  Ivanhoe." 

And  after  you  have  read  "  The  Tempest,"  what  do 
you  remember  to  have  found  difficult?  Is  it  not 
clearer  than  daylight,  that  enchanted  island  where 
Prospero,  the  exiled  duke,  has  lived  twelve  years 
with  his  daughter  Miranda  ?  Is  it  not  a  simple  and 
sweet  romance  that  Prince  Ferdinand  should  be 
wrecked  on  the  island  and  should  fall  in  love  with 
Miranda  and  that  she  should  fall  in  love  with  him, 
the  first  man  she  has  seen  except  her  father?  Is 
it  not  clear  that  Prospero,  a  student  of  magic,  has 
gained  control  of  the  spirits  of  the  island  and  has 
his  blithe  servant,  Ariel,  and  his  brutal  servant, 
Caliban  ?  Did  you  find  any  difficulty  in  understand- 
ing that  when  the  wicked  brother,  who  cheated 
Prospero  of  his  dukedom,  is  cast  ashore  upon  the 
island,  Prospero  pardons  him  and  gets  his  dukedom 
back  ?  What  is  obscure  in  this  wonder  tale  ?  "  Cin- 
derella "  and  "  The  Sleeping  Beauty  "  are  made  of 
the  same  stuff,  and  we  hear  them  at  our  mothers' 
knees  before  we  are  able  to  read  at  all. 

But  there  is  more  in  "  The  Tempest "  than  a 
childish  fairy  tale.    Yes,  much  more,  but  that  more 

120 


TENNYSON 


I 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

is  insinuated  into  the  story,  it  is  embroidered  upon 
it,  it  comes  to  us  without  effort  of  ours,  for  the  poet 
is  a  Prospero  and  teaches  us,  as  Prospero  taught 
Miranda,  by  art  and  nature  and  not  by  laborious 
counsel.  You  will  feel  as  you  follow  the  fairy  story 
that  the  spirit  of  nature  has  stolen  over  you  un- 
awares, that  Caliban  represents  the  evil  in  the  nat- 
ural world  and  Ariel  the  good,  and  that  both  are 
obedient  to  the  bidding  of  man's  intelligence.  So 
much  philosophy  will  come  to  you  of  itself ;  it  is  not  a 
dull  lesson  to  knit  your  brows  over;  you  need  seek 
no  lecturer  to  expound  it  to  you.  A  song  of  Ariel 
will  linger  in  your  ear.  All  that  is  required  of 
you  is  that  your  senses  be  wide  awake  and  that 
your  fancy  be  free  from  bookish  anxiety  and  ready 
to  be  played  upon.  The  miracle  will  be  wrought  for 
you.  You  need  only  sit,  like  Ferdinand,  and  watch 
the  masque  which  the  wizard  evokes — "  a  most  ma- 
jestic vision,  and  harmoniously  charming."  There 
will  remain  with  you  some  speech,  grave  with  philos- 
ophy and  luminous  with  imagery,  such  as  this : 

These  our  actors, 
As  I  foretold  you,  were  all  spirits,  and 
Are  melted  into  air,  into  thin  air; 
And,  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  this  vision, 
The  cloud  capp'd  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces, 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself, 
Yea,  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve, 
And,  like  this  insubstantial  pageant  faded, 
Leave  not  a  rack  behind.    We  are  such  stuff 
As  dreams  are  made  on;  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep. 
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A  Guide  to  Reading 

It  is  better,  perhaps,  to  read  the  comedies  and 
histories  before  the  tragedies.  The  comedies  and 
histories  are  simpler  in  motive,  and  through  lighter 
thoughts  give  one  the  feeling  for  Shakespeare's  dic- 
tion and  prepare  one  to  enter  the  tragedies  that  treat 
of  higher  matters.  It  is  because  tragedy  is  concerned 
with  greater  ideas,  not  because  it  ends  unhappily, 
that  it  is  greater  poetry  than  comedy.  It  deals  with 
more  important  motives  and  more  serious  events, 
and  its  thought  is  complete;  the  career  of  Hamlet, 
or  of  Macbeth,  is  finished,  and  the  ideas  of  life  that 
informed  the  career  and  shaped  the  events  are  car- 
ried out  to  their  fullest.  Tragedy  does  not  consist 
in  the  piling  up  of  corpses  in  the  last  act;  the  end 
of  the  characters  is  nothing  in  itself.  Shakespeare 
always  rounds  oif  the  conclusion  with  rapid  strokes ; 
having  done  with  the  ideas  and  motives  that  lead 
to  the  end  he  has  little  interest  in  the  mere  death  of 
his  characters.  It  is  the  "  way  to  dusty  death  "  that 
interests  him  and  us  and  makes  the  tragedy  pro- 
found. To  those  readers  referred  to  in  a  previous 
chapter,  who  do  not  like  sad  endings,  we  can  now 
give  another  answer.  They  put  too  much  thought 
upon  the  ending  and  too  little  upon  the  story  that 
leads  to  the  end.  Whoever  does  not  like  tragedy 
does  not  like  serious  ideas,  and  whoever  does  not 
read  tragedy  does  not  read  the  greatest  poetry.  For 
the  greatest  poetry  must  consist  of  the  most  im- 
portant ideas.  N^ot  only  upon  beauty  of  form  and 
magic  of  phrase,  but  on  the  heart,  the  content, 
depends  the  greatness  of  a  poem. 

122 


The  Eeading  of  Poetry 

LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  POETRY 

(Supplementary  to  Chapter  VI) 

COLLECTIONS  AND  ANTHOLOGIES   OF  POETRY 

The  English  Poets,  edited  by  T.  H.  Waed^  and  pub- 
lished by  Macmillan,  in  four  volumes,  at  $1 
each. 
On  the  whole,  the  most  satisfactory  collection  of 
English  poetry.     Each  of  the  chief   poets   is  rep- 
resented by  several  selections,  and  the  introductory 
criticisms  are  in  themselves  a  liberal  education. 

Little  Masterpieces  of  Poetry,  edited  by  Henry  Van 
Dyke,  in  six  volumes,  and  published  by  Double- 
day,  Page  &  Co. 
The  poems   are  divided  according  to  form;   one 
volume  containing  ballads;  another,  odes  and  son- 
nets ;  another,  lyrics ;  and  so  on.     This  is  a  rational, 
but  not  a  practical,  principle  of  division,  for  it  is 
better  to  have  the  selections,  say,   from  Keats,  to- 
gether in  one's  anthology  than  to  have  his  sonnets 
in  one  volume  and  his  lyrics  in  another.     A  poet  and 
his  poetry  are  very  definite  units,  but  the  lines  be- 
tween lyrics  and  ballads  ajid  odes  are  not  sharp  and, 
on  the  whole,  not  important. 

Lyra  Heroica,  edited  by  William  Ernest  Henley, 
and  published  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
Called  "  a  book  of  verse  for  boys  " ;  really  a  book 
of  verse  for  everybody,  consisting  of  the  martial,  the 

123 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

heroic,  the  patriotic,  from  the  old  English  ballads  to 
Rudyard  Kipling. 

A   Victorian  Anthology,  edited  by  Edmund  Clab- 
ENCE  Stedman^  and  published  by  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co. 
A    remarkably    adequate    collection    of    English 

poems  of  the  last  seventy  years. 

An  American  Anthology,  edited  by  Edmund  Clar- 
ence  StedmaN;,  and  published  by  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co. 
Kot  only  a  wise  selection  of  the  best  American 
poetry,  but  a  complete  survey  of  the  poetic  utter- 
ance of  this  country,  from  a  biographical  and  his- 
torical point  of  view. 

The  Golden  Treasury,  edited  by  Erancis  Turner 
Palgrave^  and  published  by  Macmillan  (see 
page  109  of  this  Guide). 

The  Golden  Treasury,  second  series,  edited  by 
Erancis  Turner  Palgrave. 
This  continues  the  first  Golden  Treasury  and  in- 
cludes the  Victorian  poets.  It  is  not  so  complete 
as  Stedman's  Anthology,  but  costs  only  half  as 
much. 

The  Children's  Treasury  of  Lyrical  Poetry,  edited 
by  Erancis  Turner  Palgrave. 

The  Children's  Garland  from  the  Best  Poets,  edited 
by  Coventry  Patmore. 
124 


The  Heading  of  Poetry 

The  two  foregoing  are  in  the  Golden  Treasury 
Series,  and  published  by  Macmillan. 

Elizabethan  Lyrics,  edited  by  Felix  E.  Schelling. 
An  inexpensive  collection,  published  by  Ginn  & 
Co.,  covering  the  same  period  as  is  covered  by  about 
one  sixth  of  the  Golden  Treasury,  but  in  larger  type 
and  so  pleasanter  to  read. 

Seventeenth  Century  Lyrics,  edited  by  Felix  E. 

SCHELLING. 

Continues  the  volume  mentioned  above. 

The  Blue  Poetry  Booh,  edited  by  Andrew  Lang. 

A  good  collection  of  verse  intended  by  the  editor 
for  young  people,  and  selected  by  him  wisely,  but 
quite  whimsically,  from  poets  he  happens  to  like. 

Golden  Numbers,  edited  by  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin 
AND  E^ORA  Archibald  Smith. 
An  excellent  anthology  intended  for  youth. 

Oxford  Booh  of  English  Verse,  edited  by  Arthur 

T.   QUILLER-COUCH. 

A  handsome  book  which  represents,  in  less  degree 
than  most  anthologies,  the  traditional  standards  of 
excellence  or  traditionally  excellent  poets,  and  in 
rather  greater  degree  the  fine  taste  of  the  editor  for 
the  best. 

English  and  Scottish  Popular  Ballads,   edited  by 
Francis  James  Child. 
125 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

This  is  a  selection  in  a  single  volume  from  the 
great  edition  of  the  ballads  by  Professor  Child.  It 
is  equally  for  the  student  and  the  reader.  In  the 
Cambridge  Poets^  published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&Co. 

Specimens  of  English  Dramatic  Poets,  edited  by 
Charles  Lamb. 
Passages  that  pleased  Lamb  in  the  works  of 
Shakespeare's  contemporaries.  Interesting  to  a 
reader  of  Elizabethan  drama  and  to  a  reader  of 
Lamb. 

INDIVIDUAL  POETS 

-^scHYLus  (525-456  e.g.).     Lyrical  Dramas, 
In  Everyman's  Library, 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldeich  (1836-1907).  Poems. 
Household  Edition.  Aldrich  was  a  careful  editor 
of  his  own  work  and  this  volume  is  complete  in  its 
inclusions  and  its  omissions.  It  is  one  of  the  few 
volumes  of  American  poetry  worth  owning. 

Aristophanes  (about  450-380  b.c).     Comedies, 

In  two  volumes  of  Bohn's  Library,  translated  by 
W.  J.  Hickie. 

Mat^thew  Arnold  (1822-88).  Poetical  Worhs, 
The  Globe  Edition,  published  by  Macmillan, 
which  costs  $1.Y5,  is  the  best.  Most  of  the  chief 
British  poets  can  be  had  in  this  edition.  The  Cam- 
bridge Edition,  published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  & 
Co.,  costs  a  little  more  the  volume,  but  it  is  prefer- 

126 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

able  on  the  whole  in  point  of  manufacture  and  read- 
ability. The  young  reader  of  Arnold  may  begin 
with  the  narrative  poem,  "  Sohrab  and  Rustum." 

Fbancis  Beaumont  (158  ?-1616).  Dramatic  WorJcs. 
The  best  selection  of  the  plays  of  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher  is  the  two  volumes,  edited  by  J.  St.  Loe 
Strachey  in  the  Mermaid  Series,  published  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  In  this  series  are,  in  the 
words  of  the  title  page,  "  The  Best  Plays  of  the  Old 
Dramatists."  A  taste  for  Elizabethan  drama  is  as 
well  left  undeveloped  until  after  a  fair  acquaintance 
has  been  formed  with  the  plays  of  Shakespeare. 

William  Blake  (1757-1827).  Songs  of  Inno- 
cence. Songs  of  Experience. 
There  are  several  collections  of  Blake's  lyrics  in 
single-volume  editions.  A  good  one  is  that  with  an 
introductory  essay  by  Lawrence  Housman.  Blake's 
lyrics  of  children  and  his  "  Tiger,  Tiger,  Burning 
Bright"  will  be  found  in  many  of  the  anthologies. 

Thomas  Edward  Brown  (1830-97).  Collected 
Poems. 
A  remarkable  English  poet,  but  little  known  to 
the  general  public  until  the  posthumous  publication 
of  his  work  in  1900  by  Macmillan  &  Co.,  in  the 
single-volume  Globe  Edition,  which  contains  the 
works  of  Shelley,  Tennyson,  and  other  great  poets; 
Brown  is  worthy  of  that  distinguished  company. 

Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  (1809-61).     Poet- 
ical WorJcs. 

127 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

In  one  volume,  in  Macmillan's  Globe  Edition. 
"  The  Sonnets  from  the  Portuguese  "  are  to  be  found 
in  a  small  volume  by  themselves.  They  are  the  best 
of  Mrs.  Browning's  work.  The  new  reader  of  Mrs. 
Browning  should  begin  after  page  150  in  the  Mac- 
millan  edition  and  read  only  the  shorter  poems. 

EoBEKT  Bro WIPING  (1812-89).  Complete  Poetic 
and  Dramatic  Worhs. 
The  Cambridge  Edition  is  the  best,  in  one  vol- 
ume. The  Globe  Edition  is  in  two  volumes.  The 
two  volumes  in  Everyman's  Library  contain  all  of 
Browning's  poems  written  up  to  1864.  A  good  vol- 
ume for  the  young  reader  is  ^'  The  Boys'  Browning," 
which  contains  poems  of  action  and  incident.  An 
inexpensive  volume,  published  by  Smith,  Elder  & 
Co.,  called  "  The  Brownings  for  the  Young,"  con- 
tains a'  good  variety  of  Browning,  with  some  selec- 
tions from  Mrs.  Browning. 

William  Culleit  Bryant  (1794-18Y8).  Poetical 
Works, 
The  poems  of  Bryant  are  published  in  one  volume 
by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Bryant's  translations  of  the 
"  Iliad  "  and  the  "  Odyssey  "  are  better  than  most 
poetic  versions  of  Homer  in  simplicity  and  dignity. 
The  young  reader  cannot  do  better  than  to  meet 
Homer  in  Bryant  before  he  learns  Greek  enough  to 
meet  Homer  himself. 

Egbert    Burns    (1759-96).      Poems,   Songs,   and 
Letters. 

128 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

The  complete  work  of  Burns  in  the  Globe  Edition 
(Macmillan). 

George  Gordoi^  Noel  Byrois'  (1788-1824).  Poetry 
of  Byron. 
A  selection  by   Matthew  Arnold   in  the   Golden 
Treasury  Series. 

Charles  Stuart  Calverley  (1831-84).  Fly 
Leaves. 
A  taste  for  refined  parody  indicates  the  possession 
of  a  critical  sense.  Coarse  parody  which  implies  no 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  poet  parodied  is  not  worth 
while.  The  reader  who  appreciates  Calverley's  de- 
licious verses  will  have  learned  to  appreciate  the 
serious  modern  poets.  Other  writers  of  humorous 
verse,  including  parodies  which  are  delicate  and 
witty,  are  J.  K.  Stephen,  Mr.  Owen  Seaman,  Henry 
Cuyler  Bunner. 

Thomas  Campbell  (177Y-1844). 

Enough  of  Campbell  will  be  found  in  Ward's 
Poets. 

George  Chapman  (1559-1634).    Dramas. 

One  volume  in  the  Mermaid  Series.  (See  pages 
243-8  of  this  Guide.) 

Geoffrey    Chaucer     (1340-1400).       Canterbury 
Tales. 

A  volume  in  Everyman's  Library  contains  eighteen 
of  the  tales,  slightly  simplified  in  spelling  and  vo- 
cabulary, said  to  be  the  first  successful  attempt  to 

129 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

modernize  Ohancer,  for  the  benefit  of  the  ordinary 
reader,  without  destroying  the  essential  quality  of 
the  original.  But  with  the  glossary  and  notes  found 
in  "  The  Student's  Chaucer,"  edited  by  W.  W.  Skeat, 
the  lover  of  poetry  will  find  himself  able  to  read 
Chaucer  in  the  original  form  without  great  difficulty. 

Arthur  Hugh  Clough  (1819-61).  Poems. 

In  the  Golden  Treasury  Series.  Readers  of  poetry 
who  have  not  met  Clough  have  an  entirely  new 
poetical  experience  before  them  in  "  The  Bothie,"  a 
narrative  poem.  It  should  be  tried  after  Longfellow's 
"  Miles  Standish  "  and  "  Evangeline."  Clough  was 
not  among  the  greatest  Victorian  poets,  but  there  is 
room  for  him  in  an  age  like  ours  which  is  said, 
whether  justly  or  not,  to  be  lacking  in  poetic  voices. 
In  this  connection  readers  may  turn  to  Clough's 
poem,  "  Come,  Poet  Come ! "  (see  page  107  of  this 
Guide). 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge   (1Y72-1834).     Poet- 
ical Worhs. 
In   the   Globe   Edition.      The   single  volume  in 
Everymaris  Library  is  adequate. 

William  Cowper  (1731-1800).     Poetical  Worhs. 
In  the  Globe  Edition. 

Dante    Alighieri     (1265-1321).      Divina    Corn- 
media. 
Gary's  translation  is  in  Everyman's  Library.    The 
best  way  on  the  whole  for  English  readers  to  learn 

130 


The  Heading  of  Poetry 

their  Dante  is  through  Charles  Eliot  Norton's  prose 
translation  (see  page  210  of  this  Guide). 

Thomas  Dekker  (157?-163?).    Dramas. 
In  the  Mermaid  Series, 

JoH]^  Donne  (1573-1631).    Poems. 

In  the  Muses  Library  (Charles  Scribner's  Sons). 
A  wonderful  poet,  who,  perhaps,  is  not  to  be  read 
until  one's  taste  for  poetry  has  grown  certain,  but 
a  liking  for  whom  in  mature  years  is  an  almost  in- 
fallible proof  of  true  poetic  appreciation. 

John  Dryden   (1631-1700).     Poetical  Worhs. 

In  the  Globe  Edition  and  also  in  the  Cambridge 
Edition.  The  reader  should  first  read  Dryden's  odes 
and  lyrical  pieces ;  his  satires  may  be  deferred. 

George    Eliot     (Mary    Ann    Evans,     1819-80). 
Poems. 

In  one  volume,  published  by  Doubleday,  Page  & 
Co.,  and  to  be  found  in  any  complete  edition  of  her 
works.  Her  reputation  as  a  novelist  has  overshad- 
owed her  excellence  as  a  poet.  "  The  Choir  In- 
visible "  is  one  of  the  noble  poems  of  the  century. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  (1803-82).     Poems. 

In  one  volume,  published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co.  Emerson  is  the  most  exalted  spirit  of  our  lit- 
erature, and  his  poems  condense  and  refine  the  best 
ideas  to  be  found  in  his  prose. 

Euripides  (480-406  b.c).    Dramas, 

131 


A  Guide  to  Keadinjr 


to 


In  two  volumes  in  Everyman  s  Library^ 
Everyman  and  Other  Miracle  Plays. 

In  Everyman's  Library.  See  also  "  Specimens 
of  Pre-Shakespearean  Drama,"  edited  by  J.  M. 
Manly  (Ginn  &  Co.).  The  recent  stage  production 
of  "  Everyman  "  has  created  a  new  popular  interest 
in  very  early  English  dramas.  The  value  of  most 
of  them  is  historical  rather  than  intrinsically  poetic. 

Eugene  Field.     A  Little  Booh  of  Western  Verse. 
Contains  the  familiar  poems  for  and  about  chil- 
dren. 

Edward   Fitzgerald    (1809-83).      Translation  of 
the  Buhdiydt  of  Omar  Khayyam. 

There  are  innumerable  editions  of  this  famous 
poem.  An  inexpensive  one  is  published  by  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co. 

John  Fletcher  (1579-1625).    Dramas, 
With  Beaumont  in  the  Mermaid  Series. 

JoHANN  Wolfgang  von  Goethe  (1749-1832). 
Dramatic  and  Poetic  Worhs. 
The  dramas,  translated  by  Walter  Scott  and  oth- 
ers, are  in  Bohn's  Library.  American  readers  will 
be  interested  in  Bayard  Taylor's  poetic  version  of 
"  Faust." 

Oliver  Goldsmith  (1728-74).     Poems,  etc. 

Goldsmith's  few  poems  are  to  be  found  in  a  good 
edition  of  his  works  in  one  volume,  published  by 
Crowell  &  Co. 

132 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

Thomas  Gray  (1716-71).    Poetical  Worhs. 

In  one  volume,  in  the  Aldine  Edition  (Macmil- 
lan).  Eeaders  of  the  familiar  "  Elegy  in  a  Country 
Churchyard ''  need  only  to  be  told  that  a  half  dozen 
of  Gray's  other  poems  are  equally  fine;  and  they 
should  not  overlook  the  delightful  "  Ode  on  the 
Death  of  Mr.  Walpole's  Cat." 

Kate  Greenaway.  Mangold  Garden.  Under  the 
Window, 
Miss  Greenaway's  delightful  pictures  of  children 
would  entitle  her  to  a  place  among  the  poets,  even 
if  she  had  not  done  the  little  rhymes  that  go  with 
her  drawings. 

Feancis    Beet    Habte     (1839-1902).      Poetical 
Worlcs, 
In  one  volume,  published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co. 

Heinrich  Heine  (1797-1856).    Poems, 

Heine's  lyrics  have  tempted  the  talents  of  many 
translators.  The  finest  collection  of  verses  from 
Heine  in  English  is  that  by  Emma  Lazarus,  herself 
a  true  poet. 

William  Ernest  Henley.    Poems, 

Henley's  one  volume  of  poems,  a  slender  volume, 
published  by  Scribner,  places  him  high  among  the 
secondary  poets  of  nineteenth  century  England. 

George  Herbert  (1593-1633).    Poems. 

Herbert's  poems  with  his  "  Life  "  by  Izaak  Wal- 
ton, are  published  by  Walter  Scott,  in  one  volume 

133 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

in  the  Canterbury  Poets,  and  also,  in  a  single  vol- 
ume, by  Crowell  &  Co.  Herbert  is  the  finest  of  the 
religious  lyric  poets  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Robert  Herrick  (1591-1674).    Poems, 

A  fine  selection,  with  an  introduction  by  Thomas 
Bailey  Aldrich,  is  published  in  one  volume  by  the 
Century  Co.  Herrick  is  to  be  found  also  in  the 
Canterbury  Poets,  in  one  volume,  and  in  Morley's 
Universal  Library,  published  by  George  Rutledge 
&  Sons. 

Thomas  Heywood  (158?-164?).   Dramatic  WorTcs. 
In  the  Mermaid  Series. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (1809-94).     Complete 
Poetical  WorJcs. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition. 

Homer.    The  Iliad.    The  Odyssey. 
See  pages  211-12  of  this  Guide. 

Thomas  Hood  (1799-1845).    Poems. 

Hood's  humorous  poems  are  found  in  a  pleasantly 
illustrated  volume,  published  by  Macmillan.  His 
serious  poems,  "  Eugene  Aram,"  "  The  Bridge  of 
Sighs,"  "  The  Song  of  the  Shirt,"  are  well  known, 
and  are  in  many  anthologies. 

Horace.     Odes,  Epodes,  Satires,  and  Epistles. 

Selected  translations  from  the  best  English  poets 
and  scholars  in  one  volume  of  the  Chandos  Classics, 
published  by  Frederick  Warne  &  Co. 

134 


LONGFELLOW 


e     c     cc 


;-,:i"S>';V"!i„.|/.'., 


The  Heading  of  Poetry 

Ben  Jonsoi^  (1573-1637).    Plays. 

In  the  Mermaid  Series,  Jonson's  fine  lyrics,  in- 
cluding the  perfect  song  "  Drink  to  Me  Only  with 
Thine  Eyes,"  should  be  looked  for  in  the  anthologies. 

John  Keats  (1795-1821).    Poems, 

The  best  edition  of  Keats  is  that  edited  by  Buxton 
Forman.  Good  editions  are  those  in  Everyman's 
Library  and  in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series. 

EuDYARD  Kipling.     Barrack-Room  Ballads.     The 

Seven  Seas. 

Sidney  Lanier  (1842-81).    Poems. 

In  one  volume,  published  by  Scribner.  An  in- 
spired poet,  if  ever  one  was  born  in  America. 

Walter   Savage   Landor    (1775-1864).      Poems, 
Imaginary  Conversations,  etc. 

A  volume  of  selections  from  the  prose  and  verse 
of  Landor  is  to  be  found  in  the  Golden  Treasury 
Series. 

Henry     Wadsworth     Longfellow     (1807-82). 
Complete  Poetical  Works. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition.   A  good  selection  from 
Longfellow  appears  in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series. 

James    Eussell    Lowell    (1819-91).      Complete 
Poetical  Works. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition. 

Maurice  Maeterlinck.    Plays. 

Translated  by  Eichard  Hovey. 
135 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Christopher  Marlowe  (1564-93).     Plays, 
In  the  Mermaid  Series. 

George  Meredith  (1828-1909).    Poems, 

Published  in  one  volume  by  Scribner.  Meredith's 
poems  of  nature  should  be  read  first. 

John    Milton     (1608-74).       Complete    Poetical 
WorJcs. 

In  the  Cambridge  Edition  and  also  in  the  Globe 
Edition.  There  are  many  texts  of  Milton  prepared 
for  use  in  schools.  The  young  reader  will  be  for- 
tunate if  he  can  read  and  enjoy  the  shorter  poems 
and  two  or  three  books  of  "  Paradise  Lost/'  before 
he  comes  to  the  study  of  them  in  school. 

MoLiERE     (Jean     Baptiste     Poquelin,     1622-73). 
Dramatic  Worhs. 
There  are  many  English  versions  of  Moliere,  some 
prepared  for  the  stage.    The  edition  in  three  volumes 
in  Bohns  Library  is  practically  complete. 

Thomas  Moore  (1779-1852).     Irish  Melodies, 

The  complete  poems  of  Moore  are  published  in  an 
inexpensive  volume  by  T.  Y.  Crowell  &  Co.  Moore's 
songs  are  his  best  work  and  many  of  them  retain  a 
sure  place  in  the  popular  balladry  of  our  race. 

William    Morris    (1834-96).      The    Defence    of 

Guinevere.    Life  and  Death  of  Jason, 

The  great  fluency  of  Morris's  poetry  makes  his 

longer  narratives  remarkably  easy  to  read.    Although 

he  is  a  poet  known  and  cherished  by  the  few,  his 

136 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

stories  in  verse  are  singularly  well  adapted  to  young 
readers. 

Edgae  Allan  Poe  (1809-49).  Complete  Poetical 
Works. 
The  best  edition  is  that  edited  by  Stedman  and 
Woodberry.  There  are  several  other  single-volume 
editions.  The  dozen  best  poems  of  Poe  should  be 
known  to  every  young  American,  and  Mr.  Andrew 
Lang  is  right  in  saying  (preface  to  the  "  Blue 
Poetry  Book  ")  that  the  youngest  ear  will  be  de- 
lighted by  the  beauty  of  the  words. 

Alexander  Pope  (1688-1744).  Complete  Poet- 
ical Works. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition.  A  century  that  began 
with  Keats  and  Shelley  and  ended  with  Swinburne 
and  Meredith  does  not  accord  Pope  the  high  place 
he  enjoyed  in  his  own  century,  but  places  him  at 
best  among  the  most  brilliant  of  the  comic  poets. 
The  "  Rape  of  the  Lock  "  is  a  humorous  masterpiece. 
A  surprisingly  good  anthology  of  Pope  is  the  section 
given  to  him  in  Bartlett^s  "  Familiar  Quotations  " ; 
the  large  number  of  lines  from  his  work  is  sure  proof 
of  his  place  in  our  literature;  only  Shakespeare, 
Milton,  and  the  Bible  contribute  so  much  that  is 
"  familiar." 

James  Whitcomb  Riley.    Old-Fashioned  Roses. 

A  natural  and  joyous  singer  about  common  things, 
deservedly  popular  in  America  and  a  truer  poet  than 
many  critics  suspect. 

137 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

Christina  Georgina  Eossetti  (1830-94).   Poems, 
Published  in  one  volume  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
Among  English  women  only  Mrs.  Browning  is  so 
fine  a  poet  as  Christina  Kossetti. 

Dante  Gabriel  Eossetti  (1828-82).  Complete 
Poetical  Worhs, 
In  two  volumes,  published  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
The  young  reader  should  begin  with  Eossetti's  songs, 
ballads,  and  simpler  poems,  "  The  Blessed  Damosel " 
and  "  My  Sister's  Sleep."  The  sonnet  sequence, 
"  The  House  of  Life,"  is  for  mature  readers. 

JOHANN      ChRISTOPH      FrIEDRICH      VON      ScHILLER 

(1759-1805).     Dramatic  Works  and  Poems, 
In  several  volumes  of  Bohn's  Library,  translated 
by  Coleridge  and  others. 

Walter  Scott  (1771-1832).  Complete  Poetical 
Works. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition.  Scott's  narrative 
poems  are  preeminently  adapted  to  the  taste  and 
understanding  of  young  readers.  There  are  many 
school  editions  of  Scott's  poetry,  and  innumerable 
reprints  attest  his  continued  popularity. 

William  Shakespeare. 

The  best  one-volume  edition  of  Shakespeare  is  the 
Cambridge  Edition.  The  best  edition  in  many  vol- 
umes is  the  Cambridge  Shakespeare,  published  by 
Macmillan  &  Co.  It  gives  the  readings  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan texts  so  that  the  reader  can  distinguish  (and 

138 


The  Reading  of  Poetry 

accept  or  reject)  the  emendations  of  scholars.  A 
pocket  edition  such  as  the  Temple  (Macmillan),  or 
the  Ariel  (Putnam),  will  prove  a  good  friend. 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  (1792-1822).     Complete 
Poetical  Worhs. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition  or  the  Globe.     In  two 
volumes  in  Everyman  s  Library.     Selected  poems  in 
the  Golden  Treasury  Series. 

Philip  Sidney  (1554—86).    Lyric  Poems, 

In  a  small  attractive  volume,  published  by  Ma(^ 
millan. 

Sophocles  (495-406  b.c.)     Plays. 

In  the  English  translation  of  R.  C.  Jebb.  The 
volume  in  Everyman's  Library  contains  translations 
by  Young.  Professor  G.  H.  Palmer's  "  Antigone  " 
is  as  remarkable  as  his  "  Odyssey." 

Robert  Southey  (1774-1843).  Poems. 

Selected  poems  in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series. 

Edmund  Spenser  (1552-99).  Complete  Poems, 
In  the  Globe  Edition.  Called  the  poet's  poet;  a 
source  of  inspiration  to  other  poets.  If  we  do  not 
read  "  The  Faerie  Queene  "  at  length,  it  is  because 
we  have  so  many  poets  since  Spenser.  Yet  if  the 
reader  had  only  Spenser  he  would  have  an  inexhaust- 
ible river  of  English  poetry. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson  (1849-94).     A  Child's 
Garden  of  Verses. 

139 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Published  by  Scribner,  in  one  volume,  which  con- 
tains Stevenson's  other  verse.  "  The  Child's  Gar- 
den "  celebrates  childhood  in  a  way  that  touches 
the  grown  imagination,  like  the  poems  about  children 
by  Blake,  Swinburne,  and  Francis  Thompson,  but 
it  appeals  also  to  children  of  all  ages. 

Algeenon     Chaeles     Swinbuene     (183Y-1909). 
Selected  Poems. 

Edited  by  E.  H.  Stoddard  and  published  by 
Crowell.  The  young  reader  should  approach  Swin- 
burne first  in  "  Atalanta,"  poems  about  children, 
poems  about  other  poets,  and  poems  of  liberty,  nota- 
bly "  The  Litany  of  Nations."  He  is  a  noble  poet, 
frequently  misrepresented  by  friendly  and  unfriendly 
wafters  of  current  literary  opinion. 

JoHiT  B.  Tabb.    Poems, 

In  two  or  three  small  volumes,  published  by  Small, 
Maynard  &  Co.  The  purest  note  among  living 
American  poets. 

Alfeed  Tennysoi^    (1809-92).     Poetic  and  Dror 
matic  Works. 

Complete  in  one  volume  in  the  Cambridge  Edition 
and  also  in  the  Globe. 

Of  all  modern  poets  preeminently  the  one  for 
young  and  old  readers  to  know  entire  (with  the  pos- 
sible exception  of  his  dramas). 

Theoceitus.     Idylls. 

In  English  prose,  together  with  translations  from 
Bion  and  Moschus,  by  Andrew  Lang,  in  the  Golden 

140 


The  Heading  of  Poetry 

Treasury  Series.     Theocritus  is  translated  into  ex- 
cellent English  verse  by  the  poet,  C.  S.  Calverley. 

James  Thomsoi^  (1700-48).  The  Castle  of  In- 
dolence. The  Seasons. 
Dimmed  but  not  displaced  by  later  poets  of  nature. 
Thomson  may  be  read  first  in  the  anthologies,  from 
which  now  and  again  a  sincere  admirer  will  be  sent 
to  his  complete  works. 

James  Thomson  (1834-82).  The  City  of  Dread- 
ful Night. 
A  remarkable  poet,  easily  among  those  whom 
we  think  of  as  next  to  the  greatest  poets.  Professor 
William  James  calls  "  The  City  of  Dreadful  Night " 
"  that  pathetic  book,"  "  which  I  think  is  less  well 
known  than  it  should  be  for  its  literary  beauty, 
simply  because  men  are  afraid  to  quote  its  words — 
they  are  so  gloomy,  and  at  the  same  time  so  sincere." 

Francis  Thompson  (1859-1907).     The  Hound  of 
Heaven. 
This  poet,  lately  dead,  has  surely  taken  his  place 
among  the  true  voices  of  English  poetry. 

Henry  Vaughan  (1622-95).     Poems. 
In  the  Aldine  Edition  (Macmillan). 

Vergil  (70-19  B.C.).    Eclogues.    Georgics.    Mneid, 
In  Conington's  prose  translation.     The  poetic  ver- 
sion of  William  Morris  is  spirited  and  fluent. 

John   Webster    (lived    in   the    Elizabethan   age). 
Dramas. 

141 


A  Guide  to  Keading 

In  the  Mermaid  Series. 

Walt  Whitman  (1819-92).     Leaves  of  Grass. 

Whitman's  poetry  is  complete  in  one  volume,  pub- 
lished by  Small,  Maynard  &  Co.  The  most  power- 
ful of  American  poets.  The  young  reader  should 
begin  with  the  patriotic  pieces  and  the  poems  of 
nature  in  the  sections  entitled  ^^  Sea-Drift,"  "  By  the 
Roadside,"  ^^  Drum  Taps,"  "  Memories  of  President 
Lincoln,"  "  Whispers  of  Heavenly  Death." 

JoHN^  Greenleaf  Whittiek  (1807-92).  Com- 
plete Poetical  Worhs. 
In  the  Cambridge  Edition.  Widely  loved  in 
America  for  his  popular  ballads  and  songs  of  com- 
mon things.  In  his  poems  of  liberty  and  in  poems 
of  religious  sympathy  and  faith,  the  true  passion  of 
the  poet  overcomes  the  technical  limitations  of  his 
verse  and  results  in  pure  poetry. 

William  Wordsworth  (1770-1850).  Complete 
Poetical  Worhs. 
In  the  Globe  Edition.  The  true  Words worthian 
believes  with  Robert  Southey  that  "  a  greater  poet 
than  Wordsworth  there  never  has  been  nor  ever  will 
be."  A  serene  voice  that  swelled  increasingly 
through  a  troubled  century,  and  is  more  and  more 
felt  to  have  uttered  the  essential  ideas  needed  in 
these  hundred  years.  Yet  much  of  Wordsworth  is 
less  than  poetic,  and  the  new  reader  should  seek 
him  first  in  the  selections  edited  by  Matthew  Arnold 
in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series. 

142 


**' ,»,  >> 


T  »    >  ;> 


WORDSWORTH 


c    c     •   t-   *'e   o 


CHAPTEE    VII 
THE  READING  OF  HISTORY 

THE  plays  of  Shakespeare  which  are  based  upon 
the  chronicles  of  English  kings  are  grouped  in 
the  Folio  edition  of  the  dramatic  works  as  "  Histo- 
ries." It  will  not  surprise  any  reader,  who  happens 
not  to  have  thought  of  it  before,  to  learn  that  the 
episodes  in  "  Henry  IV  "  and  "  Henry  V  "  do  not 
follow  the  actual  course  of  events  in  the  reigns  of 
the  real  kings;  we  take  it  for  granted  that  Shake- 
speare meant  to  write  historical  fiction,  and  we  read 
the  plays  as  creations  of  the  poetic  imagination. 
But  many  readers  will  be  surprised  to  hear  that 
most  works  which  we  call  historic  are  likewise  fig- 
ments of  the  imagination,  and  that  we  should  read 
many  of  them  in  somewhat  the  same  spirit  as  we 
read  the  historical  plays  of  Shakespeare  or  good 
historical  novels,  l^ot  only  do  we  get  the  most  pleas- 
ure out  of  the  great  historians  by  regarding  their 
works  as  pieces  of  artistic  writing,  but  we  save  our- 
selves from  the  error  of  accepting  their  narratives 
as  fact.  For  it  is  generally  true  that  the  more  glow- 
ing, the  more  imaginative,  the  more  architectural  a 
work  of  history,  the  more  it  is  open  to  suspicion  that 
it  is  not  an  exact  account  of  true  events.    In  taking 

143 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

this  position  we  are  not  appropriating  to  the  uses 
of  literary  enjoyment  works  of  information  that 
should  be  left  among  the  dictionaries  and  encyclo- 
pedias; we  are  only  obeying  the  best  critical  his- 
torians, who  warn  us  not  to  believe  the  accepted 
masterpieces  of  history,  but  allow  us  to  enjoy  them. 
And  enjoyment  is  what  we  seek  and  value. 

The  conception  of  history  as  the  work  of  the  imag- 
ination was  held  by  all  the  older  historians.  Bacon 
said  that  poetry  is  "  feigned  history."  That  is,  he 
conceived  that  the  methods  of  poetry  and  history 
are  the  same  and  that  the  difference  lies  in  the 
material,  the  poet  inventing  the  substance  of  his 
story,  the  historian  finding  his  substance  in  the  re- 
corded events  of  the  past.  This  view  of  history 
obtained  up  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Macaulay 
said  that  history  is  a  compound  of  poetry  and  philos- 
ophy. And  Carlyle  thought  it  proper  to  designate 
as  a  history  his  ^*  French  Revolution,"  a  work  based 
on  certain  facts  in  history  but  consisting  in  large 
part  of  dramatic  fiction,  philosophic  reflection,  and 
political  argument.  In  the  last  hundred  years  there 
has  grown  up  a  view  of  history  as  a  science,  the 
purpose  of  which  is  to  examine  the  evidences  of  the 
past  in  human  life  as  the  geologist  studies  the  past 
of  the  physical  globe  on  which  we  live.  The  new 
school  of  history  is  comparatively  so  young  that  it 
has  not  produced  many  writers  of  high  rank  in  elo- 
quence and  literary  power,  whereas  poetic  history 
is  as  old  as  literature  and  includes  the  work  of  many 
great  masters.  These  masters  live  by  their  eloquence ; 

144 


The  Eeading  of  History 

for  it  is  eloquence  rather  than  mere  truth  to  fact 
that  gives  a  work  a  permanent  place  in  literature. 
So  our  knowledge  of  historic  events  must  come  to 
us,  the  world  of  general  readers,  in  large  part  from 
historians  who  were  great  artists  rather  than  ac- 
curate scholars.  And  scientific  history,  and  also 
scientific  hiography,  will  for  another  century  be  a 
voice  crying  in  the  beautiful  wilderness  of  legend, 
myth,  philosophical  opinion,  political  prejudice,  and 
patriotic  enthusiasm. 

We  can  cheerfully  leave  this  scientific  history 
where  it  belongs,  in  the  hands  of  historians  and 
special  students.  The  better  for  us  as  readers  if 
we  can  read  the  great  histories  with  the  same  de- 
light and  somewhat  the  same  kind  of  interest  that 
we  bring  to  the  reading  of  romances.  There  will  be 
enough  truth  in  them  to  give  us  a  fairly  just  view  of 
former  ages.  The  culture  and  humanity  will  be 
there.  Shakespeare's  stories  of  English  kings  give 
us  the  spirit  of  England.  Carlyle's  "  French  Kevo- 
lution"  will  never  cease  to  be  a  splendid  work  of 
art.  Bancroft's  "  History  of  the  United  States " 
will  remain  a  noble  celebration  of  democracy,  even 
though  he  was  not  strict  in  his  use  of  documents. 

In  school  we  expect  to  learn  true  lessons  in  his- 
tory, to  get  our  dates  right  and  keep  our  judgments 
impartial.  Out  of  school  we  shall  read  history  for 
pleasure  and  like  it  the  better  if  it  is  informed  with 
the  eloquence,  the  prejudice,  the  philosophy,  in  short 
the  personality  of  a  great  writer. 

There  are  certain  books  that  occur  immediately 
145 


A  Guide  to  Keading 

as  introductions  to  the  various  departments  of  lit- 
erature. We  agreed  that  Palgrave's  "  Golden  Treas- 
ury "  is  the  best  book  to  put  into  the  hands  of  one 
knocking  for  the  first  time  at  the  door  of  poetry. 
Boswell's  "  Life  of  Johnson  "  is  a  perfect  biography 
to  win  the  new  reader's  liking  for  biographical  lit- 
erature and  memoirs.  And  so  there  is  one  volume 
of  history  that  seems  the  best  of  all  books  in  which 
English  speaking  youth  may  read  the  great  story  of 
the  race,  Green's  "  Short  History  of  the  English 
People."  One  might  wish  from  patriotic  motives 
that  there  were  an  American  history  equally  good, 
but  there  is  none,  so  far  as  I  know — none  which 
covers  our  national  life  as  a  whole.  We  can,  how- 
ever, be  content  with  Green,  for  the  American  can- 
not know  his  own  history  or  his  own  literature  and 
traditions  without  knowing  those  of  England.  Our 
literature  is  English  literature  and  must  be  for  cen- 
turies to  come,  and  in  most  of  our  reading  of  poetry 
and  fiction  we  shall  find  that  the  history  of  England 
is  involved  more  deeply  than  the  history  of  our 
country. 

The  merits  of  Green's  History,  the  literary  merits, 
are  its  clear  arrangements,  the  fine  lucidity  of  the 
writing,  its  condensation  of  national  movements  into 
rich  chapters  where,  as  from  a  peak  one  overlooks 
the  great  epochs  of  disaster  and  progress.  These  are 
the  opening  sentences: 

"  For  the  fatherland  of  the  English  race  we  must 
look  far  away  from  England  itself.  In  the  fifth 
century  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  the  one  country 

140 


The  Beading  of  History 

which  we  know  to  have  borne  the  name  of  Angeln 
or  the  Engleland  lay  in  the  district  which  we  now  call 
Sleswick,  a  district  in  the  heart  of  the  peninsula 
which  parts  the  Baltic  from  the  northern  seas.  Its 
pleasant  pastures,  its  black-timbered  homesteads,  its 
l^rim  little  townships,  looking  down  on  inlets  of  pur- 
ple water,  were  then  but  a  wild  waste  of  heather 
and  sand,  girt  along  the  coast  with  sunless  woodland, 
broken  here  and  there  by  meadows  which  crept  down 
to  the  marshes  and  the  sea." 

Could  any  historic  novel,  we  may  say  could  any 
other  historic  romance,  open  more  enticingly  ?  Here 
is  rich  promise,  promise  of  the  picturesque,  promise 
of  the  eloquent  phrase,  promise  of  a  sympathetic  his- 
tory of  a  people  who  are  delvers  in  the  soil,  dwellers 
in  homesteads,  and  no  mere  pawns  in  the  game  of 
kings.  This  is  to  be  a  history  of  a  people.  We  shall 
learn  of  their  great  common  characteristics ;  we  shall 
understand  them  as  we  understand  a  family,  and 
every  adventure  from  King  Alfred's  burning  of  the 
cakes  to  Olive's  conquest  of  India  will  spring  like 
the  episodes  in  a  great  plot  from  the  character  of 
the  English  race. 

From  Green's  History,  as  a  whole,  we  shall  learn 
what  are  the  important  things  in  the  history  of  any 
people.  His  admirable  sense  of  the  relative  values 
of  events  and  persons  informs  his  work  with  a  philos- 
ophy of  life  that  is  just,  wholesome,  and  salutary 
for  a  young  person  to  be  imbued  with  who  must 
look  out  on  the  daily  struggle  about  him,  read  the 
endless    hodge-podge    of   newspaper    chronicle,    and 

147 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

weigh  the  day's  events  wisely.  Green  fulfils  the 
ideal  which  he  sets  forth  in  the  preface :  "  It  is  the 
reproach  of  historians  that  they  have  too  often  turned 
history  into  a  mere  record  of  the  butchery  of  men 
by  their  fellow  men.  But  war  plays  a  small  part  in 
the  real  history  of  European  nations,  and  in  that  of 
England  its  part  is  smaller  than  in  any.  ...  If  I 
have  said  little  of  the  glories  of  Cressy,  it  is  be- 
cause I  have  dwelt  much  on  the  wrong  and  misery 
which  prompted  the  verse  of  Longland  and  the 
preaching  of  Ball.  But  on  the  other  hand,  I  have 
never  shrunk  from  telling  at  length  of  the  triumphs 
of  peace.  I  have  restored  to  their  place  among  the 
achievements  of  Englishmen  the  ^  Faerie  Queene ' 
and  the  '  IN'ovum  Organum.'  I  have  set  Shakespeare 
among  the  heroes  of  the  Elizabethan  age.  ...  I 
have  had  to  find  a  place  for  figures  little  heeded  in 
common  history — the  figures  of  the  missionary,  the 
poet,  the  printer,  the  merchant,  the  philosopher." 
One  of  the  practical  merits  of  Green's  England 
as  an  introduction  to  the  reading  of  historic  lit- 
erature is  that  at  the  head  of  each  chapter  he  gives 
the  works  from  which  he  has  drawn.  And  as  his 
nature  and  ideals  of  history  led  him  to  the  most 
fertile  and  interesting  of  other  historians,  his  lists 
contain  the  titles  of  readable  books  rather  than  dry 
and  obscure  sources.  So  that  if  a  reader  finds  one 
part  of  the  story  of  England  especially  fascinating 
he  can  turn  aside  to  those  historians  who  have  treated 
it  more  fully,  to  the  authorities  whom  Green  read 
and  enjoyed.     For  instance,  see  the  wealth  of  books 

148 


The  Heading  of  History 

which  Green  mentions  at  the  head  of  the  chapter 
that  most  concerns  us,  The  Independence  of  Amer- 
ica. There  are  Lord  Stanhope's  "  History  of  Eng- 
land from  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,"  Bancroft's  "  His- 
tory of  the  United  States/'  Massey's  "  History  of 
England  from  the  Accession  of  George  the  Third," 
Lecky's  "  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century";  the  letters  and  memoirs  of  individuals 
who  witnessed  the  struggle,  or  took  part  in  it,  such 
as  the  "  Letters  "  of  Junius,  "  Life  and  Correspond- 
ence of  Charles  James  Fox,"  Burke's  speeches  and 
pamphlets.  And  we  should  add  the  newest  impor- 
tant authority  on  the  conflict,  Trevelyan's  "  Amer- 
ican Kevolution." 

These  books  in  turn  will  lead  to  others  as  far  as 
the  reader  cares  to  go.  Indeed  it  is  one  of  the  de- 
lights and  excitements  of  reading  that  one  book  sug- 
gests another,  and  the  eager  reader,  who  is  under  no 
obligation  to  go  along  a  definite  course,  finds  himself 
in  a  glorious  tangle  of  bypaths.  A  book  like  Green's 
may  lead  into  any  corner  of  literature;  one  may 
follow,  as  it  were,  over  the  intellectual  ground  where 
he  got  his  education.  We  may  begin  with  Gibbon's 
"  Kome "  which  he  read  at  sixteen  (other  boys  of 
sixteen  can  read  it  with  as  much  pleasure  as  he 
found  in  it,  even  if  they  do  not  become  historians), 
and  we  can  go  on  through  his  early  studies  of  the 
English  church.  If  one  reads  only  the  poets  and 
men  of  letters  to  whom  he  gives  a  place  in  his  chron- 
icle of  English  life  one  will  be,  before  one  knows 
it,  a  cultivated  man — even  a  learned  man. 

149 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

Let  us  dwell  a  moment  on  this  aspect  of  leader- 
ship in  hooks.  'No  two  persons  will  ever  follow  the 
same  course  of  reading;  no  list  will  prove  good  for 
everybody;  but  any  book  which  has  interested  you, 
and  which  you  have  reason  to  think  the  product  of 
a  great  mind,  will  constitute  itself  a  guide  to  read- 
ing; ^  it  will  throw  out  a  hundred  clues,  far-leading 
and  profitable  to  take  up,  clues  which  show  what 
has  been  the  reading  of  the  author  whose  work  sug- 
gests them.  And  there  must  always  be  safety  in 
following  where  a  great  man  has  gone  in  his  literary 
pilgrimages. 

If  there  is  no  history  of  America  comparable  in 
scope  and  style  to  Green's  "  Short  History  of  the 
English  People,"  there  are  several  American  his- 
torians of  high  rank.  Perhaps  because  they  were 
endowed  with  dramatic  imagination,  or  were  in- 
fluenced by  the  literary  rather  than  the  scientific 
masterpieces  of  history,  American  historians  of 
genius  have  applied  their  talents  to  romantic  periods 
in  the  story  of  foreign  nations,  or  to  those  early 
navigations  and  settlements  which  resulted  in  the 
founding  of  our  nation.  Washington  Irving  began 
in  his  "  Life  of  Columbus  "  and  "  The  Conquest  of 
Granada "  the  brilliant  stories  of  Spanish  chivalry 
and  adventure,  which  were  continued  by  William 
Hickling  Prescott  in  "  The  History  of  the  Keign 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  "  The  Conquest  of  Mex- 
ico "  and  "  The  Conquest  of  Peru."  The  writings 
of  Prescott  and  Irving  have  a  kind  of  antique  gor- 

*  See  also  page  244  of  this  Guide. 
150 


The  Eeading  of  History 

geousness  in  which  the  modern  historian  does  not 
allow  himself  to  indulge.  The  history  of  the  French 
and  the  Indians  and  the  pioneers  appealed  to  the 
genius  of  Francis  Parkman.  The  beginner  may  set- 
tle down  to  any  book  of  Parkman's  with  the  happy 
certainty  of  finding  a  brilliant  and  thrilling  story. 
John  Lothrop  Motley,  in  "  The  Eise  of  the  Dutch 
Eepublic "  and  ^^  The  United  ISTetherlands,"  treats 
of  a  people  whose  story  the  American  reader  may 
learn  in  youth  or  may  postpone  until  after  he  has 
become  acquainted  with  some  books  on  English  and 
American  history.  The  colonial  history  of  America 
is  best  read  in  the  work  of  John  Piske,  whose  gifts 
of  style  and  philosophic  outlook  on  life  place  him 
among  the  great  historians.  The  history  of  America 
from  the  beginning  to  modern  times  must  be  read 
in  books  by  various  authors,  who  deal  with  limited 
sections  and  periods.  It  is  especially  true  of  re- 
cent periods  that  no  one  historian  is  adequate. 
Partisanship  and  our  closeness  to  the  Civil  War 
have  prevented  the  American  historian  from  see- 
ing the  conflict  clearly  in  its  relations  to  the  rest 
of  our  national  story,  and  for  a  just  impression  of 
the  struggle  between  the  states,  the  reader  should 
go  to  the  documents  and  the  memoirs  of  the  time. 
The  reminiscences  of  the  political  leaders,  the  biog- 
raphy of  Lincoln,  and  the  excellent  narratives  of 
Union  and  Confederate  generals — Grant,  Alexander, 
Longstreet,  Gordon,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  and  others 
— constitute  a  history  of  the  period.  There  is  peculiar 
validity  in  the  reminiscences  of  the  contemporary 

161 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

witnesses  of  historical  events.  The  writer  of  auto- 
biography and  memoirs  is  not  expected  to  give  final 
judgments,  and  we  unconsciously  allow  for  his  per- 
sonal limitation.  The  professional  historian,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  obliged  to  make  sweeping  decisions, 
and  we  are  likely  too  often  to  accept  his  decisions 
as  final,  unless  we  are  trained  and  critical  students 
of  history.  If  one  reads  several  memoirs  of  the  same 
period,  one  gradually  forms  an  historical  judgment 
about  it  and  comes  to  a  position  midway  between 
the  points  of  view  of  the  various  writers. 

The  young  man  beginning  to  read  history  now, 
as  Green  began  Gibbon  at  sixteen,  may  consider 
whether  he  will  devote  himself  to  the  task  of  writing 
the  history  of  the  American  people.  Even  if  his 
ambitions  are  not  so  high,  he  may  be  sure  that  as 
a  citizen  of  the  Republic  he  can  never  know  too 
much  about  the  history  of  his  nation  and  of  the  men 
who  helped  to  make  it. 

As  aids  to  historical  reading,  it  is  well  to  have 
some  books  of  bare  facts,  a  short  history  of  Amer- 
ica, a  dictionary  of  dates,  and  a  compact  general 
encyclopedia  of  events,  such  as  Ploetz's  "  Epitome." 
But  these  are  for  reference  and  not  for  entertain- 
ment. As  a  rule,  text  books  of  history  prepared  for 
schools,  however  excellent  they  may  be  for  the  pur- 
poses of  study,  are  not  entertaining  to  read.  They 
have  not  space  for  all  the  elaborate  plots,  political 
intrigues,  biographical  interludes,  accounts  of  pop- 
ular movements  of  thought,  which  appeal  to  the 
imagination  of  the  leisurely   reader.      Our   school 

152 


The  Reading  of  History 

teachers  will  take  care  that  we  learn  the  salient  facts 
which  everyone  must  know.  By  ourselves  we  shall 
dip  into  Parkman's  "  Montcalm  and  Wolfe "  or 
Prescotf  s  "  Conquest  of  Mexico "  or  Carlyle^s 
"  French  Revolution."  In  reading  these  master- 
pieces for  pleasure,  we  shall  he  supplementing  our 
work  in  school  and  making  our  daily  lessons  easier. 

LIST  OF  WORKS  OF  HISTORY 
Supplementary  to  Chapter  VII 

The  following  list  of  titles  is  not  intended  to  out- 
line an  adequate  reference  library  for  the  student  of 
history.  It  includes  principally  books  that  have 
taken  their  place  in  literature  by  virtue  of  their 
readability  and  their  imaginative  power,  and  may 
therefore  be  supposed  to  interest  the  general  reader. 
A  few  books  are  included  which  deal  with  current 
historical  problems  and  politics. 

AMERICAN  HISTORY 
Heney  Adams.    History  of  the  United  States, 

Covers  exhaustively  the  period  immediately  fol- 
lowing the  Revolution. 

George    Bancroft    (1800-91).      History    of    the 
United  States  from  the  Discovery  of  the  Con- 
tinent to  1789. 
James  Bryce.     The  American  Commonwealth. 

The  recognized  authority  on  American  political 
institutions. 

153 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Edward  Chaining.  Students'  History  of  the 
United  States. 

Said  to  be  the  best  of  the  one-volume  histories 
of  this  country. 

John  Fiske  (1842-1901).  Discovery  of  America, 
with  Some  Account  of  Ancient  America  and  the 
Spanish  Conquest.  New  France  and  New  Eng- 
land. Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,  The 
Beginnings  of  New  England.  The  Puritan 
Theocracy  in  its  Relations  to  Civil  and  Relig- 
ious Liberty.  Dutch  and  Qualcer  Colonies  in 
America.  American  Revolution.  Critical  Period 
of  American  History  (1783-89).  War  of  In- 
dependence. Mississippi  Valley  in  the  Civil 
War.    Civil  Government  in  the  United  States, 

JoHiq^  Bkown^  Gordon.  Reminiscences  of  the  Civil 
War. 

Albert  Bushnell  Hart  (and  collaborators).  Amer- 
ican History  Told  by  Contemporaries. 
Four  volumes  of  extracts  from  diaries  and  writers 

who  lived  in  the   epochs   under   consideration.      A 

rich  source  of  information  and  enjoyment,  as  are 

also  the  following  books: 

How  Our  Grandfathers  Lived.  Colonial  Children. 
Camps  and  Firesides  of  the  Revolution.  Ro- 
mance of  the  Civil  War. 

William  Edward  Hartpole  Lecky.  American 
Revolution, 

154 


The  Heading  of  History 

Selected  from  his  "  History  of  England  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century."  This  with  Trevelyan's 
"  American  Revolution  "  will  give  American  readers 
the  history  of  the  conflict  from  a  British  point  of 
view. 

James  Longstreet.    From  Manassas  to  Appomattox. 
To  he  read  in  conjunction  with  the  Memoirs  hy 
Grant,   Porter,    Sherman,   Gordon,   Alexander,   and 
other  Union  and  Confederate  generals. 

Francis  Parkman  (1823-93).     The  Oregon  Trail. 
France  and  England  in  North  America. 
"  France  and  England  in  E"orth  America  "  is  di- 
vided into  seven  parts  under  the  following  titles: 
Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World;  The  Jesuits 
in  North  America  in  the  Seventeenth  Century; 
La  Salle  and  the  Discovery  of  the  Great  West; 
The  Old  Regime  in  Canada;  Count  Frontenac 
and  New  France  under  Louis  XIV;  A  Half 
Century  of  Conflict;  Montcalm  and  Wolfe. 

James  Ford  Rhodes.  History  of  the  United  States 
from  the  Compromise  of  1850. 

Theodore  Roosevelt.  American  Ideals.  The 
Naval  War  of  1812.    The  Winning  of  the  West. 

Ellen  Churchill  Semple.  American  History 
and  Its  Geographic  Conditions. 

GoLDwiN  Smith.  Canada  and  the  Canadian  Ques- 
tion. The  United  States,  an  Outline  of  Polit- 
ical History. 

155 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 
Geokge  Otto  Trevelyan.     American  Revolution. 

WooDROw  Wilson.     Congressional  Government:  a 
Study  in  American  Politics.     History  of  the 
American  People. 
The  second  work,  in  five  volumes,  covers  the  his- 
tory of  the  country  from  the  beginnings  to  the  present 
time;  both  readable  and  trustworthy. 

GREAT  BRITAIN 

Feancis    Bacon    (1561-1626).      History    of    the 
Reign  of  Henry  VII. 
The   first  great  piece  of  critical  history  in  our 
language. 

Henky  Thomas  Buckle.     History  of  Civilization 
in  England. 

Thomas   Carlyle   (1795-1881).     Cromwell's  Let- 
ters and  Speeches,  with  Elucidations. 

Earl  of  Clarendon  (1608-74).  History  of  the 
Great  Rebellion. 
A  vivid  account  of  the  Cromwellian  wars  by  a 
royalist.  Interesting  to  read  in  connection  with 
Carlyle's  "  Elucidations  "  of  the  letters  and  speeches 
of  Cromwell. 

Mandell  Creighton.     Age  of  Elizabeth. 

Edward    Augustus    Freeman    (1823-92).      His- 
tory  of  the  Norman   Conquest.      William   the 
Conquerer.    Growth  of  the  English  Constitution 
from  the  Earliest  Times. 
156 


The  Heading  of  History 

James  Anthony  Froude  (1818-94).  History 
of  England  from  the  Fall  of  Wolsey  to  the  De- 
feat of  the  Armada. 

Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner.     A  Student's  History 
of  England.    History  of  England  from  the  Ac- 
cession of  James  to  the  Outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War.    History  of  the  Great  Civil  War.    History 
of  the  Commomvealth  and  the  Protectorate. 
The  three  histories  last  named  constitute  a  con- 
tinuous  work    of   eighteen   volumes.      Gardiner   is 
not   the    easiest    historian    to    read,    but   his   work 
is  indispensable  to  anyone  who  would  get  a  true 
view  of  a   period  which  more  than  any   other   in 
English    history    has   been    discolored    by    brilliant 
biased  historians,   from   Clarendon  to  Carlyle  and 
Macaulay. 

John  Richard  Green  (1837-83).     A  Short  His- 
tory of  the  English  People.    The  Making  of 
England.   The  Conquest  of  England.  A  History 
of  the  English  People. 
The  "  History  "  is  a  longer,  though,  perhaps,  not 

a  "  greater,"  book  than  the  "  Short  History.'' 

Richard  Hakluyt    (1553-1616).     The  Principal 
Navigations^    Voyages  and  Discoveries  of  the 
English  Nation. 
In  eight  volumes  of  Everyman's  Library. 

Henry  Hallam  (1777-1859).  Constitutional  His- 
tory of  England. 

157 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

David  Hume  (1711-76).     History  of  England, 

Almost  displaced  as  a  historian  by  later  writers, 
but  still  interesting  because  of  his  philosophic  and 
literary  genius. 

Andrew  Lang.     History  of  Scotland. 

William  Edward  Hartpole  Lecky.     History  of 
England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  (1800-59).     His- 
tory of  England  from  James  II. 
In  three  volumes  in  Everyman's  Library. 

GoLDWiN  Smith.    The  United  Kingdom. 

Jacques  Nicolas  Augustin  Thierry.     History  of 
the  Norman  Conquest  of  England. 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

FRANCE 
Edmund  Burke    (1729-97).     Reflections   on  the 
Revolution  in  France. 

Thomas  Carlyle  (1795-1881).     The  French  Rev- 
olution. 

Victor  Duruy.    History  of  France. 

English  translation,  published  by  Crowell  &  Co. 

Francois    Pierre    Guillaume    Guizot.      History 
of  France  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  18^8. 

Victor  Hugo.    History  of  a  Crime. 

Deals  with  the  Coup  d'etat  of  1851,  of  which  Hugo 
158 


The  Eeading  of  History 

was  a  witness.    Vivid,  powerful  writing,  easy  to  read 
in  the  French. 

Henry  Morse  Stephens.  History  of  the  French 
Revolution, 
The  work  of  a  modern  scientific  historian,  may  be 
read  after  Carlyle's  "  French  Kevolution  "  as  a  cor- 
rective and  for  the  sake  of  comparing  two  historical 
methods. 

HiPPOLYTE  Adolphe  Taine.    The  Ancient  Regime. 

The  French  Revolution.     The  Modern  Regime, 

The  application  to  French  history  of  somewhat 

the  same  philosophic  methods   and  principles   that 

inform  his  "  History  of  English  Literature." 

GERMANY 

Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner.     The   Thirty   Years' 
War, 

Ernest  Flagg  Henderson.     A  Short  History  of 
Germany, 

Helmuth   Karl   Bernhard   von   Moltke.      The 
Franco-German  War, 

ANCIENT  GREECE 

Alfred  John  Church.    Pictures  from  Greek  Life 
and  Story. 

Especially  adapted  to  young  readers. 
159 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

Ernst  Curtius.     History  of  Greece. 

A  monumental  German  work  to  be  found  in  a 
readable  translation. 

Thomas  Davidson.  Education  of  the  Greek  People 
and  its  Influence  on  Civilization. 

George  Finlay.     Greece  Under  the  Romans, 
In  Everyman  s  Library. 

George  Grote.    History  of  Greece. 

The  standard  English  work  in  Greek  history.     In 
twelve  volumes  of  Everyman's  Library. 

Herodotus.     Stories  of  the  East  from  Herodotus. 
Extracts  retold  by  Alfred  John  Church,  especially 
for  young  readers. 

John  Pentland  Mahaffy.  Greek  Life  and 
Thought  from  the  Age  of  Alexander  to  the 
Roman  Conquest.  A  Survey  of  Greek  Civilizor 
Hon. 

ANCIENT  ROME 

Samuel  Dill.  Roman  Society  in  the  Last  Century 
of  the  Western  Empire. 

Edward  Gibbon   (1737-94).     History  of  the  De- 
cline and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  supreme  contribution  of  England  to  historical 
literature,  in  its  combination  of  distinguished  style 
and  scientific  method. 

160 


The  Reading  of  History 

Theodob  Mommsen.     History  of  Rome. 

A  great  German  work,  in  five  volumes,  to  be  found 
in  a  readable  English  translation. 

OTHER  HISTORIES 
Cambridge  Modern  History. 

Of  this  great  History  planned  by  the  late  Lord 
Acton,  ten  volumes  have  been  published.  It  is  the 
work  of  many  writers  and  will  be  a  storehouse  of  the 
most  competent  historical  writing  of  our  time. 

James  Bryce.    Holy  Roman  Empire. 

Readers  of  Bryce's  "  American  Commonwealth  '* 
will  seek  this  other  excellent  work. 

Jeaw  Feoissaet.     Chronicles. 

In  Everyman's  Library. 

There  are  several  translations  and  condensations 
of  Froissart's  "  Chronicles,"  notably  "  The  Boy's 
Froissart,"  edited  by  the  American  poet,  Sidney 
Lanier. 

Mary  Henrietta  Kingsley.     The  Story  of  West 
Africa. 

Henry  Hart  Milman   (1791-1868).     History  of 
Latin  Christianity. 

Robert  Louis  Stevenson.    A  Footnote  to  History: 
Eight  Years  of  Trouble  in  Samoa. 
A  fine  piece  of  historical  writing  showing  that 
Stevenson  had  the  gifts  of  the  historian  as  well  as 
the  gifts  of  the  poet  and  romancer. 

161 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

William  Hicklii^g  Peescott  (1796-1859).  Con- 
quest of  Mexico.  Conquest  of  Peru.  Reign  of 
Philip  Second.  Reign  of  Ferdinand  and  Isor 
hella. 

John  Lothrop  Motley  (1814-77).  Rise  of  the 
Dutch  Republic.    History  of  the  United  Nether- 


Archibald  Forbes.     The  Afghan  Wars. 

A  mixture  of  history  and  vivid  reporting  by  a 
great  war  correspondent. 

Pierre  Loti.    Last  Days  of  PeJcin. 

Washington  Irving   (1783-1859).     Knicherhoch- 
er's  History  of  New  YorJc.     The  Conquest  of 
Granada. 
These  books  demonstrate  the  wide  range  of  Irv- 

ing's  genius  from  burlesque,  mingled  with  genuine 

study  of  racial  characteristics,  to  sober  and  poetic 

history. 

Francois  Marie  Arouet  (Voltaire).    History  of 
Charles  XII  of  Sweden. 
Accompanied  in   the  English  translation  by  the 
critical  essays  of  Macaulay  and  Carlyle.     Easy  to 
read  in  the  French. 

John  Addington   Symonds    (1840-93).     Renais- 
sance in  Italy. 
A  work  of  rare  beauty  on  the  men,  the  history,  and 
the  art  of  Italy. 

162 


The  Eeading  of  History 

Walter  Kaleiqh  (1552-1618).  The  Discovery  of 
the  Empire  of  Guiana.  A  History  of  the  World. 
Raleigh's  "  History  of  the  World  "  is  not  so  large 
as  it  sounds  in  scope,  but  in  imagination  it  almost 
lives  up  to  its  title.  Thoreau  says :  "  He  is  remark- 
able in  the  midst  of  so  many  masters.  There  is  a 
natural  emphasis  in  his  style,  like  a  man's  tread, 
and  a  breathing  space  between  his  sentences." 

Feederic  Haeeison^.     The  Meaning  of  History, 
An  excellent  guide  to  the  reading  of  history. 


163 


CHAPTEE   VIII 

THE  READING   OF  BIOGRAPHY 

QJI^N'CE  literature  is,  broadly,  the  written  record 
^  of  human  life,  biography,  the  life  story  of  real 
men,  lies  at  the  core  and  center  of  literature.  On 
one  side  biography  is  allied  to  history,  which  is  the 
collective  biography  of  many  men.  On  the  other 
side  it  is  related  to  fiction. 

In  our  discussion  of  "  History  "  we  found  that 
there  are  two  ideals  or  methods  of  writing  it:  one 
the  picturesque,  the  other  the  scientific.  The  scien- 
tific historian  accuses  the  picturesque  historian  of 
falsifications  and  disproportions.  Scientific  history 
is  new  and  aggressive  and  it  accentuates  its  differ- 
ences from  the  old  ideals.  Yet  there  is  no  essential 
opposition  between  fact  and  an  imaginative  repre- 
sentation of  fact.  Gibbon  is  picturesque,  yet  he  is 
one  of  the  first  great  historians  to  make  exhaustive 
study  and  accurate  use  of  documents.  Carlyle  can 
be  as  eloquent  when  he  is  telling  the  truth  as  when 
he  is  misled  by  his  love  of  color  and  his  partisan 
passions.  The  great  historian  of  the  future  will  not 
falsify  or  distort  facts  except  as  human  nature  must 
always  intervene  before  the  facts  which  it  presents 
in  human  language.     The  true  historian  will  have 

164 


The  Eeading  of  Biography 

great  imagination,  great  vision,  and  yet  have  scru- 
pulous care  to  precisions  of  truth.  For  the  present, 
history  is  recovering  from  its  traditional  eloquence 
and  trying  to  learn  to  present  facts  honestly  and 
clearly.  Never  again  will  the  spirit  of  history  and 
historical  criticism  tolerate  such  a  magnificent  fabri- 
cation as  the  end  of  De  Quincey's  "  Flight  of  a 
Tartar  Tribe,"  in  which  he  gives,  with  all  the  para- 
phernalia of  a  learned  note,  the  inscription  carved 
on  the  columns  of  granite  and  brass  to  commemorate 
the  migration  of  the  Kalmucks.  The  columns  are  a 
structure  of  De  Quincey's  fancy,  and  the  inscription 
is  in  such  prose  as  he  alone  among  white  men  or 
Chinamen  knew  how  to  write!  In  De  Quincey's 
time  it  was  not  considered  an  ethical  aberration  to 
invent  facts.  In  a  ponderous  article  which  he  wrote 
for  the  Encyclopcedia  Britannica  on  Shakespeare,  he 
quoted  the  poet  from  memory  and  spun  some  of  the 
biography  from  his  own  fancy.  The  pious  and 
learned  President  of  Harvard  College,  Jared  Sparks, 
for  the  greater  glory  of  America  and  its  founder, 
"  improved  "  the  style  of  Washington's  private  pa- 
pers and  ably  defended  the  emendations.  And 
Weems,  an  early  biographer  of  the  man  who  seems 
nobler  the  more  truly  we  know  him  and  who  needs 
no  legend  to  dignify  him,  wrote  his  life  of  Washing- 
ton with  the  deliberate  purpose,  indicated  on  the  title 
page,  of  inculcating  patriotic  and  moral  lessons  in 
the  young.    Hence  the  cherry-tree  story. 

History  has  improved  in  its  morals,  if  not  in  its 
manners,   and  scientific  biography  is  making  some 

165 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

headway.  But  biography  is  still  in  a  hazy  state  of 
legend  and  myth.  Approach  any  man  you  choose, 
especially  among  men  of  letters  who  have  been  writ- 
ten about  by  other  men  of  letters,  and  you  find  a 
mass  of  conjecture  and  legend  masquerading  as  fact. 
Sometimes  there  is  an  added  garment  of  disguise, 
the  dignified  gown  of  science  and  scholarship. 

E'o  great  writer  has  suffered  from  credulous  and 
weak-principled  biographers  so  much  as  the  greatest 
of  all — Shakespeare.  Most  of  the  lives  of  him  are 
gigantic  myths,  built  on  hardly  as  many  known  facts 
as  would  fill  two  pages  of  this  book.  Of  late  his- 
torians and  men  of  science  have  begun  to  laugh  at 
literary  biographers  for  making  such  confusion  of 
the  institution  of  Shakespeare  biography.  It  is  well 
enough  for  the  young  reader  to  learn  carefully  the 
biographical  notes  prefixed  to  the  school  editions  of 
Shakespeare,  for  the  better  the  young  reader  learns 
school  exercises  and  the  notes  in  the  text  books,  the 
better  basis  he  has  for  reading  and  thinking  for 
himself.  I  may  say,  however,  that  there  are  at 
present,  so  far  as  I  know,  only  two  books  on  the  life 
of  Shakespeare  which  are  trustworthy,  Halliwell- 
Phillips's  "  Outlines,"  which  gives  all  the  documents, 
and  a  recent  masterly  discussion  of  the  documents 
by  George  G.  Greenwood  called  "  The  Shakespeare 
Problem  Eestated."  It  is  a  problem  and  not  one  for 
us  to  go  into  here  except  that  it  illustrates  what  we 
are  saying  about  scientific  and  fanciful  biography. 
I  should  not  wonder  if  another  generation  were  more 
interested  than  our  fathers  have  been  in  the  poetic 

166 


The  Reading  of  Biography 

achievements,  whatever  they  are,  of  the  man  whose 
youthful  portrait  is  on  the  cover  of  this  book — Francis 
Bacon.  One  thing  is  certain:  the  rising  generation 
had  better  learn  early  to  approach  with  caution  and 
tolerant  scepticism  books  bearing  such  titles  as 
"  Shakespeare,  Man,  Player  and  Poet,"  "  Shake- 
speare, His  Life,  His  Mind  and  His  Art.''  We  had 
better  bend  our  attentions  to  the  plays  themselves, 
and  when  we  wish  to  read  about  Shakespeare,  turn 
not  to  the  so-called  biographies  and  "  studies  in 
Shakespeare  "  by  college  professors,  but  to  the  great 
critics,  Coleridge,  Hazlitt,  Lamb,  De  Quincey,  Pater. 

As  we  said  that  we,  mere  readers,  should  leave 
scientific  history  in  the  hands  of  specialists,  so  we 
may  leave  the  problems  of  literary  biography  to  ex- 
pert investigators.  We  are  interested  rather  in  that 
kind  of  biography  which  is  as  old  as  the  earliest  leg- 
ends of  heroes,  that  which  celebrates  the  great  ones 
of  the  earth.  If  it  is  true  to  fact  so  much  the  better ; 
but  since  biographers  are  likely  to  be  the  friends, 
kinsmen,  admirers  of  their  subjects,  biography  will 
be  the  last  division  of  history  to  be  informed  with 
the  scientific  spirit.  And  so  far  as  it  is  an  art,  it 
will  err  on  the  right  side,  like  fiction  and  poetry,  by 
presenting  an  ennobled  view  of  human  nature. 

That  biography  is  an  art  is  proved  by  the  ad- 
mittedly great  examples.  The  novelist  who  creates 
a  fictitious  biography  has  no  more  difiicult  and  del- 
icate task  than  the  biographer  who  finds  in  a  real 
life  story  the  true  character  of  a  man,  and  gives  to 
the    events    which    produced    the    character    artistic 

1G7 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

form,  unity,  and  movement.  Boswell's  "  Life  of 
Samuel  Johnson  '^  and  Robert  Southey's  "  Life  of 
Lord  ]^elson ''  are  as  beautifully  designed  as  the 
best  novels.  Boswell's  masterpiece  resembles  a  real- 
istic novel  and  Southey's  ^^  N^elson "  is  like  a  ro- 
mantic tale  of  chivalry  and  heroism. 

Benjamin  Jowett,  the  great  professor  of  Greek 
at  Oxford,  said  that  biography  is  the  best  material 
for  ethical  teaching.  In  many  ways  it  is  the  best 
material  for  all  kinds  of  teaching.  For  everything 
that  human  beings  have  done  and  thought  is  to  be 
found  in  the  life  stories  of  interesting  individuals, 
so  that  biography  opens  the  way  to  every  subject. 
In  our  discussion  of  history  we  said  that  the  directest 
path  to  the  heart  of  an  historical  epoch  is  through 
the  biography  of  an  important  figure  or  a  wise  ob- 
server of  that  epoch.  There  is  no  better  political 
history  of  America  during  the  Civil  War  than 
Mcolay  and  Hay's  "  Life  of  Lincoln."  Grant's 
"  Memoirs "  contains  all  that  an  ordinary  reader 
needs  to  know  of  the  movements  of  the  Northern 
armies  after  Grant  took  command.  The  memoirs  and 
reminiscences  of  Davis  and  Confederate  generals  give 
us  an  adequate  account  of  the  civil  and  military 
movements  of  the  Southern  side.  Carlyle's  "  Crom- 
well," no  matter  how  biased  and  overwrought  it  seems 
to  discriminating  students,  will  open  the  seventeenth 
century  for  those  of  us  who  cannot  be  specialists 
in  history.  Bourrienne's  "  Memoirs  of  I^apoleon," 
in  the  English  translation,  is  a  good  introduction 
to  the  history  of  Europe  during  the  l^apoleonic  wars 

168 


The  Heading  of  Biography 

(and  it  makes  little  difference  to  us  that  the  book 
was  largely  rewritten  and  augmented  by  the  French 
editor).  Morley's  "  Life  of  Gladstone  "  is  a  history 
of  Victorian  England.  The  life  of  Luther  is  the 
heart  of  the  Protestant  Eeformation. 

The  layman  who  would  know  something  of  the 
tendencies  of  modern  science  cannot  do  better  than 
to  read  the  biographies  of  men  of  science  in  which 
sympathetic  pupils  have  told  in  a  style  more  simple 
than  the  masters'  treatises  the  intellectual  principles 
and  human  conditions  of  the  masters'  work.  Such 
biographies  are  the  "  Life  and  Letters  "  of  Darwin, 
of  Huxley,  of  Agassiz.  The  "  Life  of  Pasteur " 
by  Valery-Kadot,  which  has  been  translated  into 
English,  is  a  clear  account  of  the  main  tendencies  of 
modern  medicine,  the  subject  that  all  the  world  is 
so  much  interested  in.  Anyone  who  reads  it  will 
know  better  how  to  make  his  way  through  the  masses 
of  popular  articles  on  medicine  and  public  health 
in  the  current  magazines. 

Since  literary  men  are  the  most  interesting  of  all 
heroes  to  other  makers  of  books,  it  is  natural  that 
the  lives  of  the  masters  of  literature  should  have 
been  written  in  greater  abundance  and  usually  with 
greater  skill  and  charm  than  the  lives  of  any  other 
class  of  men.  A  good  way,  perhaps  the  best  way,  to 
study  literature  is  to  read  the  lives  of  a  dozen  or 
a  score  of  great  writers.  An  ambitious  youth,  deter- 
mined to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  knowledge  of 
literature,  might  begin  to  read  in  any  order  the  biog- 
raphies in  the  series  called  English  Men  of  Letters, 

169 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

From  that  series  I  should  cross  out  William  Black's 
^'  Goldsmith ''  and  substitute  Forster's  or  Washing- 
ton Irving's  ^^  Life  of  Goldsmith  " ;  I  should  also 
omit  Leslie  Stephen's  "  George  Eliot  "  and  read  in- 
stead the  ''  Life  and  Letters  "  by  J.  W.  Cross.  It 
would  be  as  well  to  pass  by  Mr.  Henry  James's 
"  Hawthorne "  in  favor  of  the  biography  by  Mr. 
George  E.  Woodberry  in  American  Men  of  Letters. 
It  will  not  be  wise  even  for  the  enthusiastic  reader 
of  literature  to  confine  his  reading  in  biography  to 
the  lives  of  men  of  letters.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
being  too  much  interested  in  bookish  persons.  Men 
of  action  have  led  more  eventful  lives  than  most 
writers,  and  their  biographers  are  likely  therefore 
to  have  more  of  a  story  to  tell.  Whenever  you  find 
yourself  interested  in  any  man,  when  some  refer- 
ence to  him  rouses  your  curiosity,  read  his  biog- 
raphy. In  general  it  is  better  to  read  about  him  in 
a  complete  "  Life,"  even  if  it  is  a  bulky  one  in  a 
forbidding  number  of  volumes.  You  are  not  obliged 
to  read  it  all.  It  is  better  to  roam  for  half  an  hour 
through  Boswell  than  to  read  a  short  life  of  John- 
son. This  is  a  day  of  pellet  books,  handy  volumes, 
and  popular  compendiums;  we  need  to  learn  again 
the  use  and  delight  of  a  little  reading  in  big  books, 
in  which  we  can  dwell  for  long  or  short  periods. 
We  need,  also,  to  get  over  the  idea  that  only  learned 
persons  and  special  students  can  go  to  original  docu- 
ments. A  boy  of  fifteen  will  have  more  fun  turning 
over  the  state  papers  and  letters  and  addresses  of 
Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Lincoln  than  in  read- 

170 


The  Reading  of  Biography 

ing  a  short  encyclopedia  article  on  one  of  those  great 
men.  Just  try  it  the  next  time  you  happen  to  be 
wandering  aimlessly  in  a  public  library  and  see  if 
you  do  not  stumble  on  something  interesting.  The 
whole  "  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  "  is  not 
so  much  worth  owning  and,  except  for  purposes  of 
reference,  not  so  much  worth  reading  as  half  as 
many  volumes  of  first-hand  biography. 

The  first  of  all  original  documentary  biography  is 
autobiography.  A  man  knows  more  about  his  o^vn 
life  than  anyone  else  and  he  is  quite  as  likely  to 
tell  the  truth  about  it  as  his  oSicial  biographer. 
"  The  Story  of  My  Life "  is  always  an  attractive 
title,  no  matter  who  the  hero  is.  If  an  autobiog- 
raphy has  continued  to  find  readers  for  a  number 
of  years,  it  is  likely  to  be  worth  looking  at.  Some- 
times men  who  are  not  entitled  to  be  called  great 
have  written  great  autobiographies.  The  "  Autobi- 
ography "  of  Joseph  Jefferson  is  full  of  delightful 
humor  and  sweetness.  At  a  time  when  the  theater 
is  not  an  institution  of  which  we  are  proud  and 
actors  as  they  appear  in  the  public  prints  are  usually 
bores  and  vulgarians,  Jefferson's  "  ^Autobiography  " 
will  give  the  reader  a  new  sense  of  the  potential 
dignity  of  the  stage  and  of  the  humanity  of  the 
actor's  profession.  Among  the  great  men  who  have 
written  autobiographies  we  have  mentioned  Mill  and 
Franklin  and  Grant.  Others  who  have  written  de- 
lightful volumes  of  self -portraiture  are  Goethe,  Gib- 
bon, Trollope,  Mrs.  Oliphant.  As  a  working  rule, 
I  should  suggest  that  when  you  are  interested  in  a 

171 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

man,  you  should  first  read  his  autobiography  if  he 
wrote  one.  If  he  did  not,  turn  to  the  most  complete 
story  of  his  life,  the  one  that  contains  whatever  let- 
ters and  documents  have  survived.  And  as  a  third 
choice  try  to  find  a  life  of  him  by  some  writer  who 
was  intimate  with  him  during  his  life,  or  who  is  an 
expert  in  the  subject  to  which  his  life  was  devoted, 
or  who  is  a  master  in  the  art  of  biography. 

LIST  OF  BIOGRAPHIES 

Supplementary  to  Chapter  VIII 

This  list  of  biographies  does  not  constitute  a  cata- 
logue of  great  men.  It  merely  gives  some  biog- 
raphies that  have  literary  quality  or  some  other 
quality  that  makes  them  important.  The  subject  of 
the  biography  is  given  first  whenever  the  person  writ- 
ten about  would  naturally  come  into  the  mind  before 
the  author  of  the  book;  thus:  Samuel  Johnson; 
"  Life  ''  by  James  Boswell.  In  other  cases  the  author 
comes  first ;  thus :  Plutarch ;  Lives. 

John"  and  Abigail  Adams.  Familiar  Letters  of 
John  Adams  and  His  Wife,  Abigail  Adams, 
During  the  Revolution. 

Joseph  Addison.     Life,  by  William  John  Court- 
hope. 
In  English  Men  of  Letters, 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich.  Life,  by  Ferris  Greenslet 

Alfred  the  Great.    Life,  by  Walter  Besant. 

172 


The  Reading  of  Biography 

Henei  Frederic   Amiel.     Journal,  translated  by 
Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward. 

AuRELius  AuGUSTiNus.     Confessious  of  St.  Augus- 
tine. 
A  remarkable  autobiography.    Pusey's  translation 
is  in  Everyman  s  Library. 

Francis  Bacon.    Life  and  Letters^  edited  by  James 
Spedding. 

James  Matthew  Barrie.    Margaret  Ogilvy. 
Barriers  life  of  his  mother;  a  delicious  book. 

George  Henry  Borrow.    The  Bible  in  Spain. 

The  subtitle  defines  this  interesting  book :  "  The 
journeys,  adventures,  and  imprisonments  of  an  Eng- 
lishman in  an  attempt  to  circulate  the  Scriptures  in 
the  peninsula."  Headers  of  Borrow  (see  page  75 
of  this  Guide)  will  be  interested  in  his  "  Life  and 
Letters,"  edited  by  William  I.  Knapp. 

Robert   Browning.     Life   and  Letters,  by   Alex- 
andra Leighton  Orr. 

James  Bryce.    Studies  in  Contemporary  Biography. 

Edmund  Burke.     Life,  by  John  Morley. 
In  English  Men  of  Letters. 

Robert  Burns.    Life,  by  John  Gibson  Lockhart. 

Julius  Caesar.     Life,  by  James  Anthony  Froude. 
Commentaries  on  the   Gallic  and  Civil  Wars. 
173 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Thomas  Caelyle  and  Mrs.  Carlyle.  Life  and 
Letters^  by  James  Anthony  Fronde. 

Thomas  de  Quincey.  Autobiographic  Sketches. 
Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-Eater,  Rem- 
iniscences of  the  Lake  Poets. 

Charles  Dickens.    Life,  by  John  Forster. 

In  the  edition  abridged  and  revised  by  the  English 
novelist,  the  late  George  Gissing. 

George  Eliot.  Letters  and  Journals^  edited  by 
John  Walter  Cross. 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.    Life,  by  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes. 
In  American  Men  of  Letters.     See  also  Emer- 
son's letters  to  Carlyle  and  John  Sterling. 

Francis  of  Assisi.    Life,  by  Paul  Sabatier. 
In  the  English  translation. 

Benjamin  Franklin.    Autobiography. 

William  Ewart  Gladstone.  Life,  by  John 
Morley. 

JoHANN  Wolfgang  von  Goethe.     Autobiography. 
Translated  in  Bohn's  Library. 

Oliver  Goldsmith.  Life,  by  Austin  Dobson.  See 
also  the  biographies  by  John  Forster  and  Wash- 
ington Irving. 

Ulysses  Simpson  Grant.   Personal  Memoirs.  Life, 
by  Owen  Wister  (in  the  Beacon  Biographies). 
174 


The  Heading  of  Biography 

Thomas  Gray.  Letters,  edited  with  a  biographical 
sketch  by  Henry  Milnor  Rideout. 

Alexander    Hamilton.      Life,    by    Henry    Cabot 
Lodge. 
In  American  Statesmen. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne.  Hawthorne  and  His  Cir- 
cle, by  Julian  Hawthorne.  Life,  by  George 
Edward  Woodberry  (in  American  Men  of  Let- 
ters), 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  Life  and  Letters,  edited 
by  John  Torrey  Morse,  Jr. 

Thomas  Henry  Huxley.  Life  and  Letters,  edited 
by  Leonard  Huxley. 

Washington  Irving.  Life  and  Letters,  edited  by 
Pierre  Munroe  Irving.  Life,  by  Charles  Dud- 
ley Warner  (in  American  Men  of  Letters), 

Jeanne  d''Arc.  Life,  by  Francis  Cabot  Lowell. 
Life,  by  Andrew  Lang.  Condemnation  and 
Rehabilitation  of  Jeanne  d'Arc,  by  J.  E.  J. 
Quicherat  (in  the  English  translation). 

Samuel  Johnson.  Lives  of  the  Poets,  selected  by 
Matthew  Arnold.  Life  of  Johnson^  by  James 
Boswell  (in  two  volumes  in  Everyman  s  Li- 
brary), 

John  Keats.    Life,  by  Sidney  Colvin. 
In  English  Men  of  Letters. 

Charles  Lamb.     Letters,  edited  by  Alfred  Ainger. 

175 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Robert  Edward  Lee.  Life,  by  Philip  Alexander 
Bruce.  Life  and  Letters,  by  John  William 
Jones.  Recollections  and  Letters,  by  R.  E.  Lee, 
Jr.    Life,  by  Thomas  I^elson  Page. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  Life,  by  John  George  Nicolay 
and  John  Hay.  A  Short  Life  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, by  John  George  Nicolay.  Lincoln,  Mas- 
ter of  Men,  by  Alonzo  Rothschild. 

David  Livingstone.  Last  Journals  in  Central 
Africa.  How  I  Found  Livingstone,  by  Henry 
Morton  Stanley. 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.  Life  and  Let- 
ters, edited  by  Samuel  Longfellow. 

Thomas  Babington  Macaulay.  Life  and  Letters, 
by  George  Otto  Trevelyan. 

John  Stuart  Mill.    Autobiography. 

John  Milton.    Life,  by  Mark  Pattison. 
In  English  Men  of  Letters. 

Napoleon.  Life^  by  John  Gibson  Lockhart.  Life, 
by  William  Milligan  Sloane.  Memoirs  of  L.  A. 
F.  de  Bourrienne.    Life,  by  John  Holland  Rose. 

Margaret  Oliphant.     Autobiography  and  Letters. 

Charles  William  Chadwick  Oman.  Seven  Ro- 
man Statesmen  of  the  Later  Republic:  the 
Gracchi,  Sulla,  Crassus,  Cato,  Pompey,  Ccesar. 

Samuel  Pepys.    Diary. 

Two  volumes  in  Everyman's  Library. 
176 


The  Heading  of  Biography 

Plutarch.     Lives. 

In  the  Elizabethan  translation  by  Thomas  ^orth, 
or  the  modern  translation  by  Arthur  Hugh  Clough. 
An  abridged  edition  of  this  is  published  for  schools 
by  Ginn  &  Co. 

Jacob  August  Kiis.    The  Making  of  an  American. 

Walter  Scott.    Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  by  John  Gibson  Lockhart. 
There  is  an  abridged  edition  of  Lockhart,  edited 
by  J.  M.  Sloan. 

William  Shakespeare.    The  ShaJcespeare  Problem 

Restated,  by  George  G.  Greenwood.    Outlines  of 

the  Life   of  ShaJcespeare,  by  James   Orchard 

Halliwell-Phillips. 

At  the  present  time  the  most  reliable  works  on 

Shakespeare's  life. 

William  Tecumseh  Sherman.  Memoirs.  Home 
Letters  of  General  Sherman,  edited  by  M.  A. 
DeWolf  Howe. 

Egbert  Southey.    Life  of  Nelson. 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

Anthony  Trollope.    Autobiography. 

IzAAK  Walton.  Lives  of  John  Donne,  George  Her- 
bert and  Richard  Hooker. 

George  Washington.  Life  of  Washington,  by 
Washington  Irving.  The  Seven  Ages  of  Wash- 

177 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

ington,  by  Owen  Wister.     Life,  by  Woodrow 

Wilson. 
JoHi^  Wesley.     The  Heart  of  Wesley's  Journal, 

with  an  essay  by  Augustine  Birrell,  published 

by  Fleming-Revell  Co. 
The  journal  is  found  in  four  volumes  of  Every- 
man s  Library, 


m 


I 


CHAPTER   IX 
THE  READING  OF  ESSAYS 

ALL  literature  consists  of  the  written  opinions 
and  ideas,  the  knowledge  and  experience,  of 
individuals;  it  is  a  chorus  of  human  voices.  Often 
the  individuality  of  the  creative  artist  is  lost  in  the 
magnitude  of  the  work.  It  is  present,  necessarily, 
in  every  line,  but  in  the  highest  forms  of  literature, 
epic  and  dramatic  poetry,  the  personal  lineaments  are 
dissolved.  Shakespeare,  sincerest  of  poets,  did  not 
in  his  dramas  reveal  his  heart  or  directly  utter  a 
single  belief  that  we  can  feel  sure  was  the  private 
conviction  of  the  author,  and  the  attempts  to  as- 
sociate lines  from  Shakespeare  with  the  personal  ex- 
periences of  the  actor  of  Stratford  are  invariably 
grotesque.  Homor,  who,  according  to  Mr.  Kipling, 
"  smote  his  bloomin'  lyre  "  and  "  winked  back  "  at 
us,  was  no  such  living  man ;  it  is  likely  that  even  if 
there  was  a  Homer,  a  poet  who  made  the  nucleus  of 
"  Iliad,"  many  hands  during  several  centuries  pro- 
duced the  Greek  epics,  "The  Iliad"  and  "The 
Odyssey,"  as  we  have  them.  Although  Dante  writes 
in  the  first  person,  his  adventures  in  worlds  beyond 
the  earth  are  those  of  a  disembodied  spirit,  a  uni- 
versal soul  seeing  visions  in  regions  where  he  must 

179 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

put  off  something  of  his  personality  before  he  can 
enter.  In  the  places  where  his  prejudices  and  local 
enmities  creep  into  his  immense  epic  of  the  heavens, 
his  work  is  least  poetic;  it  is  precipitated  from  the 
ideal  to  a  kind  of  ghostly  guide  book,  and  the  voices 
of  the  angels  and  the  winds  of  the  under  world  for 
the  moment  become  still. 

The  novelist  at  his  best  disappears  from  his  work. 
There  is  no  greater  shock  than  when  at  the  end  of 
"  The  I^ewcomes,"  Thackeray  abruptly  wrenches  us 
from  the  deathbed  of  Colonel  ^N'ewcome  and  says  that 
he,  W.  M.  Thackeray,  has  just  written  a  story  and 
that  it  is  now  fading  away  into  Fableland.  A  device 
of  printing  would  save  us  from  the  shock;  the  epi- 
logue ought  to  begin  on  a  new  page,  and  a  large 
"  Finis "  should  follow  Colonel  l^ewcome's  death. 
The  person  who  makes  a  work  of  art  has  the  privilege 
of  talking  about  himself  in  a  preface;  after  that  he 
must  stand  back  and  let  the  stage  fill  with  characters. 

Even  in  great  art,  however,  we  do  feel  the  presence 
of  a  man  and  we  are  willing  to  let  him  step  in  front 
of  his  stage  sometimes  and  talk  in  his  own  person. 
The  best  English  novelists,  Fielding,  Thackeray, 
George  Eliot,  Meredith,  are  essayists  for  pages  at 
a  time,  and  most  of  us  do  not  resent  their  intrusion. 
We  like  writers  who  use  the  capital  I. 

So  we  take  peculiar  delight  in  that  kind  of  lit- 
erature which  is  avowedly  a  talk,  a  monologue  in 
which  an  author  discourses,  not  through  poetic  forms, 
or  through  fiction  in  which  other  characters  are  the 
speakers,  but  directly  to  us  as  in  a  private  letter  or 

180 


The  Eeading  of  Essays 

a  spoken  lecture.  This  kind  of  discourse  is  called 
an  essay.  The  man  who  talks  may  pretend  to  be 
something  that  he  is  not,  and  the  essayist  is  often 
a  writer  of  fiction  portraying  only  one  character. 
Such  was  Lamb  when  he  pretended  to  be  Elia ;  such 
was  Swift  in  many  of  his  pamphlets;  such  was  the 
"  Spectator,"  a  multiple  personality  whose  wig  Ad- 
dison and  Steele  and  their  friends  could  put  on  at 
will. 

Whether  it  is  a  real  or  a  fictitious  person  who 
addresses  us  through  the  essay,  the  form  of  the  essay 
is  the  same,  a  direct  communication  from  a  "  me  " 
to  a  "  you." 

The  essay  may  have  for  its  subject  anything  under 
the  sun.  It  may  be  a  short  biography  with  critical 
comment,  as  in  Macaulay's  essays  on  Addison,  on 
Chatham,  on  Clive,  and  Carlyle's  essays  on  Burns 
and  Scott.  Other  essays  by  Macaulay  and  Carlyle 
are  on  a  framework  of  historical  narrative.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  invented  an  essay  form  all  his 
own  in  "  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,"  in 
which  the  opinions  of  the  autocrat  are  linked  together 
by  a  pleasant  boarding-house  romance.  And  he 
achieved  an  unusual  triumph  when  he  continued  the 
form  in  other  books,  "  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast 
Table  "  and  "  The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table," 
and  did  not  suffer  th^  disaster  that  usually  befalls  a 
writer's  effort  to  repeat  a  success. 

Most  of  the  written  philosophy  of  the  modern 
world  is  in  the  form  of  essays.  In  Emerson  we  have 
philosophy  in  short   eloquent  discourses,   many  of 

181 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

them  like  sermons.  Political  arguments  and  orations, 
if  they  have  literary  quality,  like  those  of  Burke  and 
Wehster,  properly  come  under  the  head  of  essay. 
And  almost  all  of  the  important  hody  of  literature 
called  criticism  is  in  essay  form. 

To  say  that  every  kind  of  writing  seems  to  be  essay 
which  is  not  something  else  is,  like  some  other  Hiber- 
nian statements,  a  short  way  of  expressing  the  truth. 
To  be  an  artistic  essay,  to  be  really  worthy  the  name, 
a  composition  must  have  in  it  a  living  personality. 
Personality  is  the  soul  of  the  essay.  We  do  not  ad- 
mit under  the  term,  essay,  broad  as  it  is,  the  discourse 
which  has  only  utility  to  recommend  it.  An  article 
on  "  How  Our  Presidents  are  Elected  '*  may  be  in- 
structive, it  may  be  more  necessary  to  the  education 
of  the  young  citizen  than  Leigh  Hunt's  chat  about 
stage-coaches.  But  Hunt's  chat  is  an  essay :  the  other 
is  not.  A  present-day  indication  of  the  difference 
between  the  essay  and  the  unliterary  form  of  exposi- 
tion is  the  habit  of  our  magazines  of  classifying  all 
prose  pieces  that  tell  us  "  how "  and  "  what "  as 
"  special  articles,"  whereas  "  essays  " — the  editors 
do  not  print  essays  if  they  can  help  it !  If  a  modern 
writer  has  an  idea  that  would  make  an  essay  he  is 
tempted  to  disguise  it  under  some  more  acceptable 
shape.  But  the  editors  would  retort — and  with 
justice — that  they  would  gladly  print  essays  if  they 
could  get  good  ones. 

There  is  something  frank  and  immediate  in  the 
appeal  of  an  essay ;  the  writer  of  it  must  be  able  to 
talk  continuously  well;  he  has  no  surprises  of  plot 

182 


The  Reading  of  Essays 

to  fall  back  on  to  wake  the  interest  of  an  inattentive 
auditor ;  he  stands  before  us  on  a  bare  platform  with 
no  stage  lights  or  scenery  to  help  him.  When  he  suc- 
ceeds, his  reward  is  a  kind  of  personal  victory,  he 
finds  not  only  readers  but  friends.  This  is  especially 
true  of  those  essayists  who  discourse  of  "  things  in 
general,"  the  true  essayists,  Charles  Lamb,  William 
Hazlitt,  Leigh  Hunt,  Montaigne,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  Oliver  Goldsmith. 
The  true  essayist,  like  the  Walrus  in  "  Alice  in  Won- 
derland," advises  us  that  the  time  has  come 

To  talk  of  many  things: 
Of  shoes — and  ships — and  sealing  wax — 

Of  cabbages — and  kings — 
And  why  the  sea  is  burning  hot — 

And  whether  pigs  have  wings. 

And  he  proceeds,  subject  to  no  obligation  in  the 
world  except  the  great  obligation  never  to  be  dull. 
The  obligation  upon  the  essayist  not  to  be  dull  im- 
poses a  peculiar  obligation  upon  the  reader  that  he 
shall  be  keen-witted.  A  stupid  person  may  be  stirred 
to  attention  by  a  novel  or  a  play,  but  no  stupid  person 
can  enjoy  an  essay.  Indeed  a  taste  for  essays  is 
a  pretty  sure  sign  of  a  reader  who  appreciates  the 
literary  spirit  in  itself. 

Just  as  the  essay  form  is  a  kind  of  test  of  apprecia- 
tion, so  certain  writers  are  touchstones  by  which  the 
taste  of  the  reader  may  be  judged.  One  such  touch- 
stone is  Charles  Lamb,  the  prince  of  English  essay- 
ists.   Whoever  likes  Lamb  with  unfeigned  enthusiasm 

183 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

has  passed  the  frontier  of  reading  and  is  at  home 
in  the  universe  of  books.  The  reader  who  hopes  to 
care  for  the  best  in  Lamb  will  not  do  well,  I  think, 
to  begin  with  the  most  familiar  of  his  essays  "  A 
Dissertation  on  Roast  Pig'';  certainly  he  will  not 
stop  with  that,  for  it  has  not  Elia's  finest  smile  nor 
even  his  j oiliest  fooling.  And  of  course  it  has  not 
his  wisdom  and  pathos.  The  young  reader  can  in  an 
hour  read  a  half  dozen  of  Lamb's  essays,  "  Old 
China,"  "  The  Superannuated  Man,"  "  Dream  Chil- 
dren," "  Imperfect  Sympathies,"  "  The  Sanity  of 
True  Genius  "  and  "  A  Chapter  on  Ears,"  and  get  a 
taste  of  his  sweet  variety.  Lamb  is  one  of  the  easiest 
of  writers  to  read  entire.  His  attempts  at  fiction  and 
even  his  verse  may  be  disregarded.  The  true  Lamb, 
the  Lamb  of  the  essays  and  the  letters,  which  are  as 
good  as  essays,  can  be  contained  in  a  couple  of  vol- 
umes of  moderate  size.  The  essays  of  Elia  are 
printed  in  many  cheap  editions ;  I  have  seen  a  book 
seller's  counter  stacked  high  with  copies  at  twenty- 
five  cents.  As  late  as  1864,  the  editor  of  the  first 
complete  edition  of  Lamb  thought  that  the  public 
at  large  knew  him  but  little,  though  his  fame 
and  popularity  had  increased  since  his  death. 
I  believe  that  since  1864  his  popularity  has  in- 
creased still  more — those  twenty-five  cent  editions 
seem  to  show  that  in  his  own  phrase,  he  has  become 
"  endenizened  "  in  the  heart  of  the  English-speaking 
nations. 

Perhaps  the  beginner  will  be  a  little  perplexed  at 
first  by  the  obscurity  of  Lamb's  allusions  to  literature, 

184 


The  Beading  of  Essays 

for  though  he  says  that  he  could  "  read  almost  any- 
thing," he  has  a  special  liking  for  the  quaint,  and 
half  the  books  that  he  mentions  will  be  unfamiliar 
to  the  modern  reader.  But  any  book  that  pleased 
him  will  be  worth  looking  at,  and  there  is  so  much 
of  common  humanity  in  him  that  one  can  pass  over 
his  obscure  references  and  still  understand  and  enjoy 
him.  So  that  if  I  recommend  as  the  best  possible 
short  guide  to  literature  his  "  Detached  Thoughts  on 
Books  and  Eeading,"  I  do  not  forget  that  the  be- 
ginner will  not  recognize  all  the  book  titles  and 
authors  that  Lamb  touches  with  affectionate  familiar- 
ity. Yet  the  thoughts  are  clear  enough  and  have 
more  of  the  true  spirit  of  reading  packed  into  them 
than  is  to  be  found  in  many  a  thick  volume  of  lit- 
erary criticism.  The  essays  that  touch  the  heart 
of  the  simplest  reader,  such  as  "  Dream  Children," 
may  be  read  first,  and  they  will  lead  to  the  liter- 
ary essays,  which  are  the  best  of  all  criticisms  in 
the  English  language.  Knowledge  of  Lamb  is 
knowledge  of  literature.  He  opens  the  way  not  only 
to  the  choicest  old  books,  but  to  the  finest  of  his 
contemporaries.  'No  man  knew  better  than  he  the 
value  of  those  friends  of  his  whom  we  have  set 
high  in  literature;  he  measured  their  altitude  while 
they  were  swinging  into  place  among  the  poetic 
stars. 

As  the  chief  master  of  literary  ceremonies  of  his 
time.  Lamb  will  be  found  at  his  best  not  only  in  his 
essays  but  in  his  letters.     His  essays  have  the  in- 
formality of  letters,  and  his  letters  have  much  of  the 
'  185 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

choiceness  of  phrase,  the  original  turn  of  thought 
that  distinguish  his  essays.  In  his  friendly  letters 
you  can  meet  almost  everybody  worth  knowing  in 
that  great  period  of  English  literature.  Lamb  is 
among  the  fine  few  whose  correspondence  is  a  work 
of  literary  art. 

The  literature  of  private  letters  stands  somewhere 
between  essays  and  biography  and  partakes  of  the 
interest  of  both.  The  good  letter  writer  is  as  rare 
in  printed  books  as  in  the  mail  bags  that  are  now 
hurrying  over  the  world ;  and  the  delight  of  reading 
good  printed  letters  by  a  distinguished  man  is  some- 
what like  the  delight  of  reading  a  well-written  letter 
from  a  friend.  To  be  sure,  a  book  of  letters  is  not 
a  masterwork  of  art,  but  it  often  brings  pleasure 
when  the  reader  is  not  just  in  mood  for  the  artistic 
masterpiece,  for  the  great  poem  or  novel.  I  can  rec- 
ommend for  a  place  in  a  library  even  of  very 
limited  dimensions  such  a  collection  of  letters  as 
Mr.  E.  Y.  Lucas's  "  The  Gentlest  Art,"  or  Scoones's 
"  English  Letters." 

It  is  said  that  the  modern  modes  of  communica- 
tion, the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  unpardonable 
post  card,  have  caused  or  accompanied  a  decline  in 
the  art  of  letter  writing.  But  the  mail  of  the  day 
has  not  yet  been  sorted;  there  may  be  great  letter 
writers  even  now  sending  to  their  friends  epistles 
that  we  shall  some  day  wish  to  read  in  print.  It 
hardly  seems  as  if  the  world  could  be  growing  so 
unfriendly  that  it  will  let  polite  correspondence  go 
the  way  of  some  other  old-fashioned  graces.     Cer- 

186 


The  Reading  of  Essays 

tainly  the  young  man  and  the  young  woman  can 
do  nothing  better  for  the  pleasure  of  friends  and 
family,  and  nothing  better  for  their  own  self-culti- 
vation, than  to  develop  the  habit  of  careful  and 
courteous  letter  writing.  Better  than  most  school 
courses  in  literature  and  composition  would  be  the 
daily  practice  of  writing  to  some  brother,  sister 
or  friend.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  young 
writers  of  the  present  day  owes  much  of  her  purity 
of  style,  much  of  her  education,  to  the  practice  of 
writing — no,  of  rewriting  letters  to  her  many 
friends. 

Our  friendly  letters  need  not  be  stiff  compositions 
written  with  the  nose  to  the  paper  and  the  tongue 
squeezed  painfully  between  the  lips.  But  they  should 
be  written  with  care.  A  rewritten  letter  need  not  be 
an  artificial  thing.  Why  should  we  not  take  pains  in 
phrasing  a  message  to  a  friend?  Neither  sincerity 
nor  "  naturalness  "  enjoins  us  to  send  off  the  first 
blotted  drafts  of  our  communications,  any  more  than 
freedom  and  "  naturalness  "  oblige  us  to  go  out  in 
public  hastily  dressed.  Candor  and  spontaneity  do 
not  suffer  from  a  care  for  our  phrases  and  some 
thought  in  grooming  our  style. 

If  the  courtly  letter  and  the  well-bred  essay  are 
not  the  characteristic  literary  form  of  our  generation, 
we  have  some  writers  of  satire  and  of  literary  and 
political  opinions  who  deserve  to  be  ranked  among 
the  essayists.  Mr.  F.  P.  Dunne  would  have  been 
a  pamphleteer  in  Swift's  time,  a  writer  of  the  chatty 
essay  in  the  days  of  Lamb  and  Hunt.    Since  he  was 

187 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

born  to  bless  our  time,  be  finds  a  wider  audience  by 
putting  bis  wit  and  wisdom,  bis  Celtic  blend  of  irony 
and  bumanity,  into  tbe  moutb  of  "  Mr.  Dooley.'^ 
Anotber  essayist  of  great  power,  tbougb  be  is  prob- 
ably not  called  an  "  essayist ''  in  tbe  encyclopedias, 
is  Mark  Twain.  He  promises  us  an  interminable 
Autobiograpby,  some  parts  of  wbicb  bave  been  pub- 
lisbed.  It  is  to  be  different  from  all  otber  auto- 
biograpbies,  for  tbe  principle  of  its  construction  is 
tbat  it  is  to  bave  no  order;  be  will  talk  about  any- 
tbing  tbat  bappens  to  interest  bim,  talk  about  it  until 
be  is  tired  of  it  and  tben  talk  about  sometbing  else. 
Tbis  unprincipled  willfulness  of  order  and  subject  is 
tbe  essayist's  special  privilege.  No  man  since  Elia 
bas  succeeded  better  tban  Mark  Twain  in  keeping 
up  tbe  interest  of  discursive  monologue  about  tbings 
in  general.  Our  public  does  not  yet  know  bow  great 
a  writer  is  tbis  master  of  tbe  American  joke,  and 
tbere  are  critics  wbo  will  cry  out  tbat  tbe  mention 
of  Mark  Twain  and  Cbarles  Lamb  in  tbe  same  breatb 
is  a  violation  of  good  sense.  Yet  Cbarles  Lamb's 
"  Autobiograpby  "  is,  except  in  its  brevity,  as  like 
to  tbe  fragments  of  Mark  Twain  as  tbe  work  of  two 
men  can  be. 

"  Below  tbe  middle  stature,"  says  Elia  of  bimself, 
"  cast  of  face  sligbtly  Jewisb,  witb  no  Judaic  tinge 
in  bis  complexional  religion;  stammers  abominably, 
and  is  tberefore  more  apt  to  discbarge  bis  occasional 
conversation  in  a  quaint  apborism,  or  a  poor  quibble, 
tban  in  set  and  edifying  speecbes;  bas  consequently 
been   libeled   as   a   person   always   aiming    at  wit; 

188 


The  Heading  of  Essays 

which,  as  he  told  a  dull  fellow  that  charged  him 
with  it,  is  at  least  as  good  as  aiming  at  dullness.  A 
small  eater,  but  not  drinker;  confesses  a  partiality 
for  the  production  of  the  juniper  berry ;  was  a  fierce 
smoker  of  tobacco,  but  may  be  resembled  to  a  volcano 
burnt  out,  emitting  only  now  and  then  an  occasional 

puff.  .  .  .  He  died  ,   18 — ,  much  lamented." 

The  footnote  to  the  last  sentence  reads :  "  To  anybody. 
— Please  to  fill  up  these  blanks."  That  is  about  as 
near  to  Mark  Twain's  manner  of  fooling  as  anything 
in  literature.  All  the  genial  essayists  are  given  to 
jest  and  quibble  and  folly.  And  when  you  come  upon 
a  writer  whose  fantastic  whimsies  and  nonsensical 
abandon  are  charming,  be  sure  to  turn  the  page,  for 
you  will  invariably  find  wisdom  and  pathos  and 
greatness  of  heart. 

In  one  class  of  essay  Mark  Twain  is  past  master, 
the  essay  of  travel.  In  "  A  Tramp  Abroad  "  and 
"  Following  the  Equator,"  not  to  speak  of  that  satire 
on  foolish  American  tourists,  "  Innocents  Abroad," 
we  have  not  only  some  of  the  best  of  Mark  Twain's 
writing,  but  examples  of  a  kind  of  essay  in  which 
very  few  authors  have  succeeded.  The  traveler  who 
can  see  things  with  his  own  eye  and  make  the  reader 
see  them,  with  a  tramp's  independence  of  what  guide 
books,  geographies,  and  histories  say,  is  the  rarest  of 
companions.  A  good  essay  in  travel  looks  easy  when 
it  is  done,  but  is  very  seldom  met  with  because  the 
independent  eye  is  so  seldom  placed  in  a  human 
head.  Moreover,  until  recent  times  of  cheap  transit, 
most  men  of  letters  have  been  obliged  to  stay  at 

189 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

home  and  make  literature  of  domestic  materials  or 
what  the  great  world  sent  them  in  books.  Though 
literature  of  travel  is  very  old,  going  back  to  the 
time  when  the  first  educated  man  visited  a  neighbor- 
ing tribe  and  lived  to  return  home  and  tell  the  tale, 
yet  the  personal  essay  of  travel  is,  in  its  abimdance, 
the  product  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  authors 
ceased  to  be  poor  and  could  circumnavigate  the 
globe. 

The  English  historian,  Kinglake,  is  remembered 
not  for  his  "  Crimean  War  "  but  for  his  "  Eothen," 
published  in  1844.  It  was  so  strange  and  fresh  a 
book  of  travel  that  several  London  publishers  rejected 
it.  An  account  of  a  journey  in  the  East  that  omitted 
information  about  many  great  landmarks  of  Palestine 
and  had  not  a  word  of  statistics — how  could  a  pub- 
lisher recommend  it  to  the  British  people?  One 
secret  of  the  book  is  that  Kinglake,  having  tried  to 
write  his  travels  in  various  forms  and  having  failed, 
hit  on  the  plan  of  addressing  his  account  to  a  friend, 
and  the  feeling  of  freedom  which  this  gave  him 
prevented  him,  he  says,  "  from  robing  my  thoughts 
in  the  grave  and  decorous  style  which  I  should  have 
maintained  if  I  had  professed  to  lecture  to  the  pub- 
lic. Whilst  I  feigned  to  myself  that  you,  and  only 
you,  were  listening,  I  could  not  by  any  possibil- 
ity speak  very  solemnly.  Heaven  forbid  that  I 
should  talk  to  my  genial  friend  as  though  he  were 
a  great  and  enlightened  Community,  or  any  other 
respectable  Aggregate.'^  Thus  it  came  about  that 
Kinglake,  aiming  at  one  friend,  reached  the  com- 

190 


The  Eeading  of  Essays 

munity,  the  "  Aggregate,"  and  found  in  it  a  host  of 
friends. 

In  the  same  year  that  saw  the  publication  of 
"  Eothen,"  Thackeray  began  his  "  Journey  from 
Cornhill  to  Cairo,"  another  book  of  travel  that  stands 
like  a  green  tree  in  a  world  of  guide  posts.  Among 
American  writers,  besides  Mark  Twain,  who  have 
made  delightful  books  of  their  journeys  abroad,  are 
Aldrich,  Howells,  and  Charles  Dudley  Warner. 

These  touring  essayists  are  usually  more  interested 
in  living  people  than  in  monuments  of  the  dead; 
and  they  take  more  pleasure  in  their  own  opinions 
and  experiences  than  in  encyclopedic  facts.  They 
are  good  traveling  companions  because  they  are 
stored  with  wisdom  and  sympathy  before  they  set 
sail,  and  in  the  presence  of  strange  sights  and  scenes 
they  give  play  to  their  fancy.  So  they  are  akin  not 
so  much  to  the  professional  traveler,  the  geographer 
and  student  of  social  conditions,  as  to  the  essayist 
who  is  good  company  at  home. 

That  is  what  the  essayist  must  be,  above  all  other 
waiters — unfailing  good  company.  He  may  be  phi- 
losopher, historian,  or  critic,  but  if  he  is  to  be  num- 
bered among  the  choice  company  of  essayists,  his 
pages  must  be  lighted  by  the  glow  of  friendliness, 
enlivened  by  the  voice  of  comradeship.  Sometimes  this 
friendliness  takes  terribly  unfriendly  forms,  as  in 
the  stinging  irony  of  Swift  or  the  hot  thunder  and 
lightning  of  Carlyle ;  these  preachers  seem  not  to  love 
their  audience,  but  at  heart  they  have  sympathy  even 
for  us  whom  they  browbeat,  and  it  is  not  we,  but  the 

191 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

heavy  thoughts  with  which  their  souls  are  burdened, 
that  have  banished  the  smile  from  their  faces. 


LIST  OF  ESSAYS 

Supplementary  to  Chapter  VIII 

Joseph  Addison-  (1672-1719).    Selections  from  the 
Spectator. 

Edited  by  Thomas  Arnold  in  the  Clarendon  Press 
Series.  There  are  many  school  editions  of  the  De 
Coverley  papers.  A  sense  of  unity  rather  than  of 
excellence  has  singled  out  the  De  Coverley  papers 
for  school  reading  and  has  made  them,  consequently, 
the  best  known  of  Addison's  (and  Steele's)  work. 
But  only  about  a  third  of  the  De  Coverley  papers 
are  among  the  fifty  best  essays  from  the  Spectator. 
Owing  to  the  weight  of  eighteenth-century  tradition, 
under  which  criticism  is  still  laboring,  Addison's  rep- 
utation is  greater  among  professional  writers  about 
literature  than  many  modern  readers,  coming  with 
fresh  mind  to  the  Spectator,  can  quite  sincerely  feel 
is  justified.  Only  the  mature  reader  who  has  some 
historical  understanding  of  Addison's  time  can  ap- 
preciate his  cool  wit  and  somewhat  pallid  humor, 
and  feel  how  nearly  perfect  is  the  adaptation  of  his 
style  to  his  purpose  and  his  limited  thoughts. 

Matthew  Arnold    (1822-88).     Essays  in   Criti- 
cism.    Culture  and  Anarchy. 

Arnold's  essays  on  books  and  writers  are  among 
the  very  best,  for  he  combines  deep  knowledge  of  lit- 

192 


The  Heading  of  Essays 

erature  with  the  charm  of  the  true  essayist.  His 
essays  on  "  Culture/'  like  many  of  the  literary  ser- 
mons of  Carlyle  and  Ruskin,  propound  with  great 
earnestness  what  every  well-bred  person  takes  more 
or  less  for  granted.  But  one  reason  we  take  the 
need  of  culture  for  granted,  one  reason  that  such 
sermons  are  becoming  obsolete,  is  because  Carlyle 
and  Ruskin  and  Arnold  made  their  ideas,  through 
their  writings  and  the  hosts  of  writers  they  influ- 
enced, part  of  the  common  current  thought  of  our 
time. 

Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626).  Essays,  Wisdom  of 
the  Ancients.  The  Advancement  of  Learning. 
There  are  many  inexpensive  editions  of  the  "  Es- 
says," and  good  texts  of  Bacon's  other  work  in  Eng- 
lish prose  have  been  prepared  for  students.  Owing 
to  their  brevity  the  "  Essays  "  are  the  best  known 
of  Bacon's  prose  work.  But  compared  with  the 
longer  works  of  Bacon,  they  are  scarcely  more  than 
tours  de  force,  experiments  in  epigrammatic  conden- 
sation. 'Not  the  young  reader,  but  the  mature  reader 
who  would  know  the  Elizabethan  age,  its  noblest 
thinker  and  the  most  eloquent  prose  contemporary 
with  the  King  James  Bible,  will  wish  to  read  Bacon's 
life  and  works  in  Spedding's  edition. 

Thomas  Browne  (1605-82).   Religio  Medici.    Urn 
Burial.    Enquiries  into  Vulgar  Errors. 
The  three  or  four  small  books  of  this  very  great 
essayist  are  to  be  found  in  a  volume  of  the  Golden 

193 


A  Guide  to  Keading 

Treasury  Series,  and  also  in  the  fine  little  Dent 
edition. 

Edmund  Burke  (1729-97).  Speech  on  American 
Taxation,  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  Amer- 
ica,    Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol, 

A  good  edition  of  Burke^s  principal  speeches  is 
that  edited  by  F.  G.  Selby  and  published  by  Mac- 
millan.  The  prescriptions  of  the  schools  have  made 
the  "  Speech  on  Conciliation  '^  familiar  as  a  difficult 
thing  to  analyze  rather  than  as  a  magnificent  essay 
(for  essay  it  is,  though  delivered  as  a  speech).  Burke's 
other  philosophic  and  political  essays  are  among 
the  great  prose  of  his  century  and  should  be  sought 
both  by  the  student  of  history  and  by  the  reader  of 
literature. 

John  Burroughs.     Birds  and  Poets,    Locusts  and 
Wild  Honey,     WaJce-Bohin, 
After  Thoreau  Mr.   Burroughs  is  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  modern  writers  on  nature  and  out-of- 
door  life. 

Thomas  Carlyle  (1795-1881).     Sartor  Besartus, 
Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,     Past  and  Present. 
Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays, 
"  Heroes  and  Hero- Worship  "  is,  for  the  beginner, 
the  best,  because  the  clearest,  of  Carlyle's  work.    Car- 
lyle's  opinions  become  of  less  and  less  consequence 
as  time  passes,  and  he  remains  great  by  virtue  of  the 
superbly  eloquent  passages  in  which  the  poet  over- 
comes the  preacher.    He  is  an  illustrious  example  of 

194 


The  Beading  of  Essays 

the  fact  that  nothing  passes  so  rapidly  as  the  beliefs 
of  a  day  which  a  preacher  hurls  at  the  world  about 
him — and  at  posterity, — and  also  of  the  fact  that  elo- 
quence and  beauty  survive  the  original  burning  ques- 
tion which  gave  them  life  and  which  later  generations 
are  interested  in  only  from  a  biographic  and  historic 
point  of  view.  The  essay  carries  in  it  the  journal- 
istic bacteria  that  make  for  its  speedy  dissolution, 
but  the  poetic  thought,  whatever  the  occasion  of  its 
utterance,  outlives  circumstance  and  changes  of  ideas 
and  taste. 

CiCEEO.     Letters  and  Orations. 

In  English,  in  Everyman  s  Library. 

Samuel  Mc Chord  Ceotheks.    The  Gentle  Reader. 
The  most  charming  and  humorously  wise  of  living 
American  essayists. 

Samuel  Tayloe  Coleeidge  (1Y72-1834).  Bio- 
graphia  Literaria.  Lectures  on  Shakespeare. 
Both  in  Bohns  Library  and  in  Everyman's  Li- 
brary, Coleridge's  detached  opinions  on  books  are 
golden  fragments  of  criticism.  His  "  Lectures  on 
Shakespeare"  are,  for  a  reader  with  imagination, 
the  most  inspiring  notes  on  Shakespeare  that  we  have, 
though  the  many  and  patent  inaccuracies  make  his 
comments  distasteful  to  modem  scholars,  who  prefer 
to  commit  their  own  inaccuracies. 

William  Cowpee  (1Y31-1800).     Letters. 
In  the  Golden  Treasury  Series. 
195 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

Daniel  Defoe  (1661-1731).  Essay  on  Projects, 
The  Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters. 
Defoe  was  a  journalist  and  pamphleteer  who  lacked 
the  charm  of  the  true  essayist,  but  whose  prose  in 
essay  form  is  worth  reading  for  its  vigor  and  variety 
of  idea. 

Thomas  De  Quincey  (1785-1859).    Selections. 

In  one  volume,  published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co.  "  The  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium- 
Eater"  is  in  Everyman  s  Library,  and  also  the 
"  Eeminiscences  of  the  Lake  Poets.'^  Dr.  Quincey's 
beautiful  poetic  prose  is  unlike  anything  before  or 
since.  The  "  Opium-Eater  "  belongs  perhaps  under 
"Biography,"  but  may  stand  here.  Its  somewhat 
sensational  subject  has  secured  for  it,  fortunately,  a 
wide  reading  and  so  kept  De  Quincey  from  passing 
into  the  shadowy  company  of  distinguished  writers 
known  only  to  the  few.  His  essays  fill  many  vol- 
umes. Those  in  the  inexpensive  volume  in  the  Came- 
lot  Series^  published  by  Walter  Scott,  include  some 
of  the  best  and  should  be  read,  perhaps,  before  the 
"  Opium-Eater." 

John  Dkyden  (1631-1700). 

There  are  collections  of  Dryden's  prose,  but  the 
best  way  to  become  acquainted  with  "the  father  of 
modern  English  prose  "  is  to  run  through  his  com- 
plete works  and  read  the  remarkable  prefaces  to  his 
plays  and  poems.  In  them  English  criticism,  for 
all  the  merit  of  some  essays  earlier  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  really  begins. 

196 


EMERSON 


The  Heading  of  Essays 

FiNLEY  Peter  Dunne.  Mr,  Dooley  in  Peace  and 
War,  Mr,  Dooley  in  the  Hearts  of  His  Coun- 
trymen,   Mr,  Dooley's  Philosophy, 

Ealph  Waldo  Emeeson  (1803-82).   Essays,   Rep- 
resentative Men,     The  Conduct  of  Life,     So- 
ciety and  Solitude, 
Emerson's    essays,    including    "  The    American 
Scholar  "   (which  is  as  fresh  and  pertinent  to  our 
time  as  if  written  yesterday),  have  been  printed  in 
inexpensive   editions   by   Houghton,    Mifflin  &   Co. 
The  volumes  named  above  should  be  owned  in  Amer- 
ican households.     More  than  Carlyle  or  Kuskin  or 
any  other  of  the  preaching  essayists  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  Emerson  emerges  as  the  prophetic,  visionary 
spirit  who  seized  and  phrased  the  best  moral  and 
spiritual  ideas  that  his  time  had  to  offer  to  future 
times. 

John  Floeio  (1660-1625).  Translation  of  Mon- 
taigne^s  Essays, 
There  are  several  handy  editions,  notably  the 
pocket  edition,  published  by  Dent,  of  this  famous 
translation  whereby  Montaigne  became  an  English 
classic. 

Oliver  Goldsmith  (1Y28-74).    The  Citizen  of  the 
World, 
Among  the  lighter  satirical  essays  of  the  eighteenth 
century  "  The  Citizen  of  the  World  "  is  second  only 
to  the  Spectator,  if  not  equal  to  it. 

197 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

William  Hazlitt  (1778-1830).    Essays. 

A  good  selection  appears  in  the  Camelot  Series. 
"  Though  we  are  mighty  fine  fellows  nowadays/* 
says  Stevenson,  "we  cannot  write  like  Hazlitt." 
(See  Hazlitt's  "  English  Comic  Writers  "  and  "  Lec- 
tures on  the  English  Poets  "  for  his  studies  of  Shake- 
speare). 

Lafcadio  Hearis".     Glimpses  of  Unfamiliar  Japan, 
Kolcoro:  Hints  and  Echoes  of  Japanese  Inner 
^    Life, 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  (1809-94).    Autocrat  of 
the  Breakfast  Table,     Professor  at  the  Break- 
fast Table.    Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table, 
In  Everyman's  Library  and  in  inexpensive  edi- 
tions, published  by  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.    A  wise, 
witty,  beautifully  lucid  mind.    Holmes  snatched  phi- 
losophy from  the  library  and  brought  it  to  the  break- 
fast table  so  that  the  poorest  boarder  goes  to  his  day's 
work  from  the  company  of  an  immortal  who  has 
met  him  halfway  and  talked  to  him  without  con- 
descension. 

James  Henry  Leigh  Hunt  (1784-1859).  Essays. 
One  volume  of  selections  in  the  Camelot  Series. 
Also  in  two  volumes  with  his  poems  in  the  Temple 
Classics  (Dent  &  Co.).  Young  readers  who  will  look 
at  Hunt's  essay  "On  Getting  Up  on  Cold  Morn- 
ings "  will  not  need  to  be  urged  further  into  his  de- 
lightful society. 

198 


The  Reading  of  Essays 

RiCHAED  Jeffekies  (1848-87).  An  English  Vil- 
lage. Field  and  Hedgerow,  The  Open  Air, 
The  Story  of  My  Heart, 

Samuel  Johnson  (1709-84).  Lives  of  the  Poets, 
Students  of  literature  will  wish  to  read  one  or 
two  of  Johnson's  criticisms.  He  was  a  much  greater 
man  than  writer,  better  as  a  talker  and  letter  writer 
than  as  an  essayist.  A  good  selection  from  the 
"  Lives  of  the  Poets  "  is  edited  by  Matthew  Arnold. 

Charles  Lamb  (1775-1834).    Essays  of  Elia. 
See  pages  183-6  of  this  Guide. 

Abraham  Lincoln  (1809-65).  Letters  and 
Speeches, 
To  be  found  in  the  complete  works,  edited  by 
Nicolay  and  Hay,  and  in  several  small  volumes  of 
selections;  the  volume  in  Everyman's  Library  has 
an  introduction  by  James  Bryce. 

James  Russell  Lowell  (1819-91).     Among  My 
Boohs,     My  Study  Windows,     Democracy  and 
Other  Addresses,    Political  Essays,    Letters, 
The  foremost  American  critic.     Interest  in  the 
bookish  and  literary  side  of  Lowell  should  not  lead 
us  to  overlook  his  ringing  political  essays,  notably 
that  on  Lincoln,  written  during  the  war  and  remark- 
able as  having  phrased  at  the  moment  the  judgment 
of  the  next  generation. 

Thomas  Babinqton  Macaulay  (1800-59).  Es- 
says, 

199 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

There  are  many  editions  of  the  more  familiar  es- 
says of  Macanlay,  especially  those  that  have  formed 
a  part  of  school  and  college  reading  courses.  The 
essay  on  Milton,  unfortunately  prescribed  in  college 
preparatory  work,  is  one  of  the  poorest.  Those  on 
Clive  and  Hastings,  also  often  prescribed,  are  among 
the  best.  It  is  the  prevailing  fashion  to  underrate 
Macaulay  as  a  critic,  as  it  was  perhaps  in  his  life- 
time the  fashion  to  overrate  him.  He  is  lastingly 
powerful  and  invigorating,  a  great  essayist,  if  only 
because  he  knows  so  well  what  he  wishes  to  say  and 
knows  precisely  how  to  say  it.  He  is  not  subtle, 
not  poetic,  but  his  clear  large  intellect  is  still  a  bright 
light  through  the  many-hued  mists  of  Victorian  crit- 
icism. 

John  Miltoit  (1608-74).    Areopagitica,  etc. 

Milton's  prose  is  difficult  to  read  and  only  a  little 
of  it  is  worth  reading  except  by  the  student  of  Mil- 
ton and  the  student  of  history.  The  noblest  passages 
of  Milton's  prose  have  been  collected  in  a  single  vol- 
ume, edited  by  Ernest  Myers,  and  published  by 
Kegan  Paul,  Trench  &  Co. 

John  Muir.     The  Mountains  of  California.     Our 
National  Parks. 

John  Henry  Newman  (1801-90).    Idea  of  a  Uni- 
versity.    Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua. 
An    admirable    volume    of    selections,   edited   by 
Lewis  E.  Gates,  is  published  by  Henry  Holt  &  Co. 
!N'ewman's  "  Apologia  "  belongs  properly  in  our  list 

200 


The  Reading  of  Essays 

of  Biography,  but  it  is  really  an  essay  in  defense  of 
certain  of  his  ideas.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  'New- 
man's  work  is  largely  religious  controversy  and  dis- 
course directed  to  practical  rather  than  artistic  ends, 
his  literary  power  and  the  beauty  of  his  prose  have 
not  won  him  so  many  readers  as  he  deserves. 

Blaise  Pascal  (1623-62).     Provincial  Letters. 
In  the  English  translation  of  Thomas  M'Crie. 

Walter  Horatio  Pater  (1839-94).  The  Renais- 
sance. Appreciations. 
The  finest  English  critic  of  his  generation.  Con- 
trary to  a  current  impression  that  Pater  is  for  the 
"  ultra-literary,"  most  of  his  work  is  clear  and  sim- 
ple ;  the  essays  on  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  are  the 
best  to  which  a  reader  of  those  poets  can  turn. 

John  Ruskin    (1819-1900).     Sesame  and  Lilies. 

Crown    of    Wild    Olive.      Queen    of   the   Air. 

Frondes  Agrestes. 
There  are  fourteen  volumes  of  Ruskin  in  Every- 
man's Library.  "  Sesame  and  Lilies  "  and  "  Frondes 
Agrestes  "  (selected  passages  from  "  Modern  Paint- 
ers") have  been  often  reprinted.  The  best  of  Ruskin's 
prose  is  very  beautiful,  the  worst  is  tediously  prolix. 
He  regretted  that  his  eloquence  took  attention  from 
his  subject  matter,  but  like  Carlyle,  he  lives  by  his 
eloquence  and  poetry  rather  than  by  his  opinions  and 
teachings. 

Sydney  Smith  (1771-1845).     The  Peter  Plymley 
Letters.    Essays. 

201 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

In  one  volume,  published  by  Ward,  Lock  &  Co. 
After  Swift,  perhaps  the  wittiest  English  essayist 
who  used  his  keen  weapons  in  the  interests  of  justice. 

Richard  Steele   (16Y1-1729).     Essays  from  the 
Tatler  and  the  Spectator. 
Steele  is  usually  found  with  Addison  in  selections 
from  the  Spectator. 

RoBEET   Louis   Stevenson    (1849-94).     Familiar 
Studies  of  Men  and  Boohs.    Memories  and  Por- 
traits. An  Inland  Voyage.   Travels  with  a  Don- 
hey. 
The  best  thoughts  of  this  romancer  and  some  of 

the  best  of  his  writing  are  in  his  essays. 

Jonathan  Swift  (1667-1745).    Selected  Prose. 

Selections  from  his  prose  writings  are  to  be  found 
in  a  volume  of  the  Camelot  Series  and  also  in  a 
small  volume  published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  Not 
until  the  reader  is  familiar  with  "  Gulliver's  Trav- 
els ''  and  has  some  understanding  of  Swift's  life  and 
the  historical  background  of  his  work,  can  he  feel  the 
genius  of  the  satirical  essays  and  political  lampoons. 
Swift  is  often  repellent  to  those  who  only  half  under- 
stand him,  but  he  grows  in  power  and  dignity  to  those 
who  appreciate  his  underlying  righteousness. 

William     Makepeace     Thackeray     (1811-63). 

Book  of  Snobs.     Roundabout  Papers.     From 

Cornhill  to  Cairo.     English  Humorists. 

Thackeray    is    an   essayist   by    temperament   and 

shows  it  in  his  novels.     His  satirical  and  literary 

202 


The  Eeading  of  Essays 

essays  may  be  reserved  until  after  one  has  read  his 
novels,  but  they  will  not  be  overlooked  by  anyone 
who  likes  Thackeray  or  who  likes  good  essays. 

Heney  David  Thoreau  (1817-62).  A  Weelc  on 
the  Concord  and  Merrimac  Rivers,  W olden. 
Excursions,  The  Maine  Woods,  Cape  Cod, 
Spring,    Summer,    Winter,    Autumn, 

Thoreau's  work  is  one  long  autobiographical  jour- 
nal ranging  from  brief  diary  notes  on  nature  to  full 
rounded  essays.  A  prose  poet  of  nature,  and  second 
to  Emerson  only  as  a  philosophic  essayist  on  nature 
and  society.  His  greatness  becomes  more  and  more 
evident  in  an  age  when  "  nature  writers ''  are  pop- 
ular. 

IzAAK  Walton  (1593-1683).  The  Complete  Angler, 
In  Everyman's  Library, 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  (1829-1900).     In  the 
Wilderness,    As  We  Go,    Backlog  Studies,    In 
the  Levant, 
A  charming  essayist,  a  humorous  lover  of  books 

and  nature.     His  reputation  has  waned  somewhat 

during  the  past  twenty  years,  but  Americans  cannot 

aiford  to  lose  sight  of  him. 

Daniel  Webster  (1782-1852).  Speeches  and  Ora- 
tions, 

In  one  volume,  published  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co. 
The  literary  quality  of  Webster's  orations  entitles 
them  to  a  place  among  American  essays. 

203 


CHAPTEK   X 
THE  READING  OF  FOREIGN  CLASSICS 

OI^NCE  there  is  not  time  in  the  short  life  of  man 
^  to  read  all  the  good  books  written  in  one  lan- 
guage, the  young  reader,  or  even  the  person  who  has 
formed  the  habit  of  reading,  may  feel  that  he  need 
never  go  beyond  the  books  of  his  own  race.  In  a 
sense  this  is  true.  Perhaps  it  is  especially  true  for 
us  who  are  born  to  the  English  language.  Eor  the 
English  people,  however  insular  they  may  be  in  some 
respects,  have  always  been  great  explorers  of  the 
lands  and  the  thoughts  of  other  races.  They  have 
plundered  the  literature  of  their  neighbors  and 
loaded  the  borrowed  riches  into  their  own  books.  In 
the  Elizabethan  age  some  writers  seem  to  have  re- 
garded it  as  a  patriotic  duty  to  render  for  their  coun- 
trymen the  choicest  literature  of  France  and  Italy 
and  Spain.  While  they  were  robbing  their  neighbors 
across  the  channel,  they  were  also  building  English 
classics  out  of  the  literary  monuments  of  "  inso- 
lent Greece  and  haughty  Rome."  And  for  many 
generations  English  writers,  like  those  of  other 
modern  countries,  have  been  brought  up  on  the 
classics. 

So  we  find  incorporated  in  English  literature  the 
204 


The  Reading  of  Foreign  Classics 

culture  of  the  entire  ancient  and  modern  world,  and 
one  who  should  read  only  English  books  could  still 
have  a  full  mind  and  a  cultivated  spirit.  We  cannot 
say,  therefore,  that  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to  realize 
the  true  purpose  of  reading,  to  make  excursions  into 
the  literature  of  foreign  countries.  But  we  can  point 
out  the  advantage  of  such  excursions,  and  I  would 
insist  on  the  ease  with  which  the  ordinary  person, 
who  has  enjoyed  only  a  limited  formal  education, 
can  make  himself  acquainted  with  foreign  languages 
and  literatures  if  he  will. 

In  our  time  we  have  schools  to  teach  everything 
known  to  man  from  advertising  to  zoology.  It  is 
well  that  our  schools  are  broadening  in  interest  and 
that  every  kind  of  knowledge  is  being  organized  so 
that  it  can  be  imparted.  But  there  is  a  danger  that 
we  may  get  into  the  habit  of  leaving  too  much  for 
the  schools,  that  we  may  come  to  think  that  the 
schools  monopolize  all  knowledge,  or  at  least  all  the 
methods  of  teaching.  This  would  be  a  great  pity  in 
a  nation  that  is  proud  of  self-made  men.  We,  of  all 
peoples,  must  remember  what  Walter  Scott  said,  that 
the  best  part  of  a  man's  education  is  that  which  he 
gives  himself.  Schools  and  universities  only  start 
us  in  a  methodical  way,  on  a  short  well-surveyed 
path,  into  the  world  of  knowledge.  Most  of  the 
learning  of  educated  men  and  women  is  acquired 
after  they  have  left  the  college  gates,  and  anyone 
may  set  out  on  the  road  to  knowledge  with  little 
direct  assistance  from  the  schools.  The  better,  the 
easier  for  us,  if  we  can  go  to  college;  but  if  we 

205 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

cannot  have  the  advantage  of  formal  education  we 
need  not  resign  ourselves  to  ignorance.^ 

Most  young  people,  however,  will  think  of  Greek, 
Latin,  French,  and  German  as  difficult  and  "  learn- 
ed "  mysteries  accessible  only  to  the  fortunate  who 
can  go  to  the  higher  schools,  and  of  use  only  to  those 
who  intend  to  enter  scientific  and  literary  profes- 
sions. If  I  say  that  with  no  knowledge  of  any  lan- 
guage but  English  you  can  teach  yourself  any  other 
language  well  enough  to  read  it,  I  hope  you  will  not 
shake  your  head  and  say  that  such  self-teaching 
is  possible  only  to  extraordinary  intellects.  Many 
commonplace  persons  have  learned  languages  by 
reading  them,  with  no  equipment  but  a  lexicon,  a 
short  grammar,  and  an  interesting  text.  Perhaps  it 
is  not  fair  on  top  of  that  statement  to  cite  the 
case  of  Elihu  Burritt,  for  he  was  an  exceptional 
man.  But  as  readers  will  learn  from  his  excellent 
"  Autobiography,"  he  began  his  studies  under  very 
difficult  circumstances;  so  that,  taking  all  things 
together,  talent  and  conditions,  many  a  young  man  can 
start  where  he  began  and  under  no  greater  disad- 
vantages. Burritt  would  have  gone  some  way  on  the 
road  to  learning  even  if  his  endowments  had  been 
small.  And  with  no  genius  but  the  genius  of  in- 
dustry we  can  follow  for  a  little  distance  his  demo- 
cratic course. 

Burritt  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade.     He  had  only 

such  education  as  he  could  get  in  a  country  academy, 

where  his  brother  was  the  master.     In  his  leisure  he 

*  See  also  page  241. 

206 


The  Eeading  of  Foreign  Classics 

studied  mathematics  and  languages,  and  before  he 
died  he  had  acquired  a  reading  knowledge  of  fifty- 
tongues  and  dialects,  ancient  and  modern.  Yet  he 
was  not  a  self-absorbed  man  who  shut  himself  up  in 
profitless  culture.  He  became  a  world-wide  apostle 
of  peace.  The  study  of  languages  taught  him  that 
all  men  are  brothers.  If  he  could  learn  fifty  foreign 
languages,  any  of  us  can  learn  one,  and  through  that 
one  we  too  shall  understand  that  we  are  not  an 
isolated  people,  not  the  only  people  in  the  world.  We 
shall  meet  in  their  native  tongue  some  great  group 
of  our  brothers,  the  Germans,  the  French,  the  Ital- 
ians, learn  their  ideals  and  broaden  our  own.  It  is 
impossible  to  learn  Greek  and  Latin  and  not  to  feel 
how  close  we  are  to  the  peoples  of  two  thousand 
years  ago.  It  is  impossible  to  learn  French  or 
German  and  keep  in  our  hearts  any  of  that  contempt 
for  "  foreigners  "  which  ignorant  and  provincial  peo- 
ple so  stupidly  cherish. 

We  shall  arrive,  too,  through  knowledge  of  another 
language  at  a  finer  appreciation  of  our  own  lan- 
guage, its  shades  and  distinctions,  its  variety  and 
power.  We  shall  understand  better  the  great  English 
writers,  many  of  whom  have  known  something  of 
foreign  literature  and  refer  in  a  familiar  way  to 
French  and  German  and  ancient  classics,  as  if  they 
took  for  granted  in  their  readers  an  acquaintance 
with  the  literature  of  other  nations. 

How  shall  we  go  to  work  to  learn  foreign  lan- 
guages ?  The  answer  is  as  simple  as  the  prescription 
for  reading  English.     Open  a  book  written  in  the 

207 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

foreign  language  and  take  each  word  in  order 
through  a  whole  sentence.  Then  read  that  same 
sentence  in  a  good  translation.  Then  write  down  all 
the  words  that  seem  to  be  nouns  and  all  the  words 
that  seem  to  be  verbs.  After  that  read  the  sections 
in  the  grammar  about  verbs  and  nouns.  The  other 
parts  of  speech  will  take  care  of  themselves  for 
a  while.  Then  try  another  sentence.  I  know  one 
young  person  who  read  through  a  French  book  and 
got  at  its  meaning  by  guessing  at  the  words  and 
then  returning  over  those  which  appeared  oftenest 
and  which,  of  course,  were  the  commonest.  It  is 
possible  by  a  comparison  of  the  many  uses  of  the 
same  word  to  squeeze  some  meaning  out  of  it.  The 
dictionary  and  the  grammar  will  give  the  rest. 

The  foreign  book  stores,  the  publishers  of  text 
books,  and  the  purveyors  of  home  teaching  methods 
that  are  advertised  in  the  more  reputable  journals 
offer  language  books  that  are  of  real  assistance.  The 
scope  of  this  Guide  does  not  admit  any  detailed 
instruction  in  the  methods  of  learning  foreign  lan- 
guages. I  can  only  insist  that  with  a  few  books  and 
perseverance  anyone  can  learn,  not  to  speak,  perhaps 
not  to  write,  but  to  read  a  strange  tongue.  And  I 
say  to  the  boy  or  the  girl  who  is  going  to  the  high 
school  that  not  to  take  the  courses  in  Greek,  Latin, 
French  and  German  is  to  throw  away  a  precious  op- 
portunity. Upon  the  grounding  of  those  few  years 
in  school,  the  young  receptive  years,  what  a  knowl- 
edge of  languages  one  can  build !  The  notion,  all 
too    prevalent,    that    foreign    languages,    especially 

208 


The  Evading  of  Foreign  Classics 

Greek  and  Latin,  are  of  no  use  to  the  boy  or  the 
girl  who  is  going  "  right  into  business/'  is  one  of 
the  dullest  fallacies  with  which  a  hard-working 
practical  people  ever  blinded  its  soul.  Playing  the 
piano  and  learning  to  sing,  nay,  even  going  to  church, 
are  of  no  use  in  business.  But  who  will  be  so  foolish 
as  to  devote  his  whole  life  to  business  ?  Burritt,  the 
blacksmith  boy,  taught  himself  languages.  The  high- 
school  boy  who  is  going  to  be  a  blacksmith  can  begin 
to  study  languages  before  he  picks  up  the,  tools  of  his 
bread-winning  labor.  If  this  seems  like  the  vain 
idealism  of  a  bookish  person,  let  me  make  an  appeal 
to  your  patriotism.  Do  you  know  that  this  land  of 
opportunity  and  prosperity  is  not  developing  so  many 
fundamentally  educated  men  and  women  as  we 
should  expect  from  our  vast  system  of  public  schools 
and  our  many  universities  ?  One  reason  is  that  we 
have  so  many  bread-and-butter  Americans  who  allow 
their  boys  and  girls  to  stay  away  from  those  classes 
in  Greek  and  Latin  and  French  and  German  which 
our  high  schools  provide  at  such  great  cost  to  the 
generous  taxpayer.  All  we  lack  in  America  is  the 
will  to  use  the  good  things  we  have  provided  for  us. 
Well,  we  who  are  interested  in  the  reading  of  good 
books  will  make  up  our  minds  to  get  by  hook  or  crook 
a  little  taste  of  some  language  besides  English.  If 
we  truly  care  for  poetry  we  shall  try  to  read  Virgil 
and  Homer  and  Dante  and  Goethe.  To  become 
gradually  familiar  with  one  great  foreign  poet,  so 
that  we  know  him  as  we  know  Shakespeare,  is  to 
conquer  a  whole  new  world. 

209 


A  Guide  to  Reading 


to 


The  easiest  books  to  read  in  a  foreign  tongue  are 
prose  fictions,  in  which  the  interest  of  the  story  spurs 
the  reader  on  and  makes  him  eager  for  the  mean- 
ings of  the  words.  Text-book  publishers  issue  inex- 
pensive editions  of  modern  French  and  German  fic- 
tions, which  are,  of  course,  selected  by  the  editors 
with  a  view  to  their  fitness  for  young  readers.  The 
French  or  German  book  which  has  become  a  recog- 
nized classic  in  its  native  land  and  is  considered  by 
editors  of  school  books  to  be  a  good  classroom  text 
is  likely  to  have  universal  literary  qualities,  simplic- 
ity, purity  of  style,  and  right-mindedness.  I  find  in 
admirable  inexpensive  texts  representative  stories  by 
Dumas,  Zola,  George  Sand,  Halevy,  Daudet,  Pierre 
Loti,  Balzac,  Hugo,  About,  and  other  French  mas- 
ters, and  by  Freytag,  Baumbach,  Sudermann,  and 
Heyse  among  modern  German  writers.  French  and 
German  drama  and  history  lie  but  a  step  beyond. 
I,  for  one,  have  read  more  of  these  school  editions  of 
foreign  classics  since  I  left  school  than  when  they 
were  part  of  school-day  duty,  and  I  am  still  grateful 
for  the  convenient  notes  and  lists  of  hard  words. 
As  one  wath  only  an  imperfect  reading  knowledge  of 
foreign  languages,  I  can  testify  with  the  right  degree 
of  authority  to  the  pleasure  of  the  ordinary  person 
in  reading  unfamiliar  tongues.  If  one  has  a  fair 
grounding  of  Latin,  the  exploration  of  Italian  and 
Spanish  is  a  tour  through  a  cleared  and  easy  country. 
With  Professor  ITorton's  wonderful  prose  transla- 
tion and  with  the  text  of  Dante  in  the  Temple  Class- 
ics, where  the  English  version  faces  the  Italian,  page 

210 


The  Keading  of  Foreign  Classics 

for  page,  one  can  read  Dante  as  one  would  read 
Chaucer.  And  there  could  be  no  better  way  to  learn 
the  difference  between  prose  and  poetry  than  to  turn 
now  and  again  to  Longfellow's  truly  poetic  transla- 
tion and  feel  how  his  verse  lifts  in  places  to  some- 
thing that  the  prose  cannot  quite  attain. 

If  we  are  not  persuaded  that  our  soul's  good  de- 
pends on  a  knowledge  of  foreign  languages,  we  can 
make  the  acquaintance  of  the  classics  of  other  nations 
in  the  best  English  renderings.  Our  greatest  book, 
the  King  James  Bible,  is  a  translation,  so  great  a 
translation  that  in  point  of  style  it  is  said  by  some 
critical  scholars  to  be  better  than  its  Greek  and  He- 
brew originals.  In  general  it  is  true  that  translation 
falls  below  the  original  or  radically  changes  its  char- 
acter. Until  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  schol- 
ars of  our  race  began  to  give  us  literal  translations 
of  the  classics,  which  although  "  literal "  are  still 
idiomatic  English,  translators  in  our  tongue  have 
been,  as  a  rule,  willful  conquerors  who  dominated  the 
native  spirit  of  their  originals  with  the  overwhelming 
power  of  the  English  language  and  spirit.  They 
anglicized  the  foreign  masterpiece  so  that  its  own 
father  would  not  recognize  it.  The  result  was  often, 
as  in  Pope's  "  Iliad,"  a  new  English  classic  but  not 
a  good  pathway  to  the  house  of  the  foreign  poet. 

Pope's  "Iliad"  is  a  "classic"  but  it  is  poor 
Homer  and  not  the  best  of  Pope.  His  genius  is 
much  better  expressed  in  "  The  Kape  of  the  Lock." 
And  Homer's  genius  is  much  better  preserved  for  us 
in  the  simple  prose  of  Leaf,  Myers,  Butcher,  and 

211 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

Lang.  Professor  G.  H.  Palmer's  "  Odyssey  "  is  so 
good  that  no  translator  hereafter  has  a  right  to  plead 
as  excuse  for  the  failure  of  his  version  of  any  classic 
that  "  the  English  language  will  not  do  it."  Mat- 
thew Arnold's  essay  "  On  Translating  Homer  "  will 
stimulate  the  reader's  interest  in  the  art  of  transla- 
tion and  help  bring  him  near  to  the  Greek  spirit. 
But  this  essay  goes  into  subtleties  which  may  baffle 
the  beginner.  Any  beginner,  old  enough  to  read  at 
all,  can  read  Professor  Palmer's  ^^  Odyssey."  Many 
books  of  Greek  stories  and  legends  of  the  heroes  have 
been  prepared  for  young  readers.  "  Old  Greek 
Stories  "  by  C.  H.  Hanson,  or  A.  J.  Church's  books 
of  Greek  life  and  story,  together  with  Bulfinch's 
"Age  of  Fable,"  will  initiate  one  into  the  Homeric 
mysteries.-^ 

After  the  reader  has  advanced  far  enough  to  be 
interested  in  philosophy,  he  will  wish  to  read  Epic- 
tetus  and  Plato.  Jowett's  "  Plato  "  is  one  of  the  great 
translations  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  reader 
of  Browning  will  not  omit  his  noble,  if  somewhat 
difficult  translation  of  the  "  Agamemnon "  of  ^s- 
chylus.  Erom  the  early  Elizabethans  to  the  late 
Victorians  the  works  of  the  English  poets  are  starred 
with  bits  from  the  Latin  and  Greek  poets.  One  of 
the  finest  of  translations  from  the  Greek  is  the 
"  Theocritus  "  of  Charles  Stuart  Calverley,  the  Eng- 
lish poet,  who  loved  all  things  beautiful  and  enjoyed 
all  things  absurd.  Calverley' s  translations  from  the 
classics  and  his  delicious  burlesques  and  parodies  will 
*  See  also  the  discussion  of  Chapman,  pp.  245-8  of  this  Guide. 
212 


The  Reading  of  Foreign  Classics 

give  one  a  new  sense  of  how  close  together  the  differ- 
ent moods  of  literature  may  lie  in  the  same  heart, 
hoth  the  heart  of  the  poet  and  the  heart  of  the  reader. 

If  an  artistic  translation  of  a  foreign  work  has 
not  been  made  or  is  not  easily  accessible,  a  literal 
translation  is  of  great  service  to  the  casual  read- 
er. Even  in  the  preparation  of  lessons  in  Latin 
and  Greek  a  literal  translation,  honestly  used,  helps 
one  to  learn  the  original  language  and  extends  one's 
English  vocabulary.  The  reason  there  is  a  ban  upon 
the  "  pony  "  in  school  is  that  people  ride  it  too  hard 
and  do  not  learn  to  walk  on  their  own  feet.  Out  of 
school  we  can  get  much  from  literal  renderings  of  the 
classics,  such  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  cheap  series 
of  Handy  Literal  Translations^  published  by  Hinds 
&  Co.  Their  fault  is  that  they  are  printed  in  try- 
ingly  small  type,  but  this  is  a  defect  due  to  their 
merits  of  compactness  and  low  cost. 

The  best  translation  of  Vergil  is  Conington's 
prose  version,  which  has  become  an  English  classic. 
The  introduction  is  one  of  the  best  essays  on  trans- 
lating. There  are  several  renderings  of  Vergil  into 
English  verse.  Dryden's  is  the  best  known,  and  is 
of  interest  to  the  reader  of  English  principally  be- 
cause Dryden  did  it.  He  brought  to  Vergil  some- 
what the  same  ideals  of  translation  and  the  same  kind 
of  skill  that  Pope  brought  to  the  "  Iliad."  William 
Morris's  version  is  probably  the  most  fluent  and 
poetic  of  modem  translations  of  Vergil  into  Eng 
lish  verse. 

The  Latin  poet  who  has  been  most  often  trans- 
213 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

lated,  and  by  the  greatest  variety  of  talent,  is  Horace, 
whom  our  forefathers  thought  that  every  gentleman 
should  be  able  to  quote.  The  accomplished  trans- 
lator likes  to  match  his  skill  against  the  clever  Ro- 
man, to  render  his  light  philosophy,  his  keen  phrase, 
his  beautiful  brevity.  The  American  will  like  the 
free  and  joyous  "  Echoes  from  the  Sabine  Farm," 
by  the  late  Eugene  Field  and  his  brother,  Mr.  Ros- 
well  Field,  a  book  that  must  have  made  the  shade 
of  Horace  inquire  appreciatively  in  what  part  of 
the  world  Chicago  is  "  located." 

Modern  literature  in  all  countries  has  attracted  the 
readers  of  other  countries,  and  the  work  of  trans- 
lation is  going  on  continuously.  'Not  only  the  great 
foreign  classics  of  the  last  three  hundred  years,  but 
a  host  of  lesser  writers  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
have  made  their  way  into  English.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  a  new  interest 
in  German  literature  and  philosophy- — indeed,  there 
was  a  new  German  literature.  Goethe  was  translated 
by  Sir  Walter  Scott  and  others.  Coleridge  translated 
Schiller's  "  Wallenstein.''  Carlyle  made  a  number 
of  translations  from  German  romance,  among  them 
a  glowing  version  of  Goethe's  "  Wilhelm  Meister," 
which,  in  part,  suggested  his  own  strange  master- 
piece, "  Sartor  Resartus."  Bayard  Taylor's  poetic 
version  of  "Faust"  is  of  interest  to  the  American 
reader  and  is  no  mean  representation  of  the  original. 

Hugo  and  Dumas  are  as  well  known  to  us  as 
Scott  and  Dickens.  Who  has  not  read  "  Les  Miser- 
ables  "  and  "  The  Hunchback  of  I^otre  Dame  "  and 

214 


The  Eeadmg  of  Foreign  Classics 

"  The  Toilers  of  the  Sea  " ;  "  The  Count  of  Monte 
Cristo "  and  "  The  Three  Musketeers "  ?  "  The 
DeviFs  Pool/'  "  Mauprat  "  and  "  The  Little  Fadette '' 
by  George  Sand  have  been  English  literature  these 
many  years.  So,  too,  have  "  Eugenie  Grandet  "  and 
"  Le  Pere  Goriot "  by  Balzac,  the  first  of  the  great 
French  realists  whose  work  has  come  to  us  directly 
in  translation  and  indirectly  through  the  English  and 
American  writers  whom  they  have  influenced. 

As  for  later  French  fiction  we  can  trust  to  the 
taste  of  English  translators,  as  we  can  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  editors  of  the  school  texts,  to  give  us  the 
best,  that  is,  the  best  for  us.  The  finest  of  Mau- 
passant comes  to  us  politely  introduced  by  Mr.  Henry 
James  in  "  The  Odd  Number."  Bourget,  Daudet, 
Pierre  Loti,  Merimee,  Halevy,  the  great  Belgian 
poet,  Maeterlinck,  who  belongs  to  French  literature, 
Anatole  France  in  his  beautiful  story,  "  The  Crime 
of  Sylvestre  Bonnard,"  the  poet  Eostand — ^these  and 
others  we  have  naturalized  in  English.  It  is  to 
France  that  we  turn  for  the  best  criticism,  and  the 
reader  who  gets  far  enough  to  be  interested  in  that 
branch  of  literature  will  find  that  many  of  the  critics 
of  our  race  have  been  pupils  of  the  French  critics 
from  Sainte-Beuve  to  Brunetiere  and  Hennequin. 

Other  countries  besides  France,  Germany,  and  Eng- 
land have  produced  literature  which  has  crossed  the 
boundaries  of  the  nations  and  become  the  possession 
of  the  world.  The  Russian  novel  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
powerful  that  the  nineteenth  century  has  seen,  but 
the  American  reader  may  as  well  leave  it  until  he  has 

215 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

read  a  great  deal  of  English  fiction.  Then  he  will 
find  that  Turgenieff,  Tolstoi,  Dostoevski  are  giants  in 
a  giant  nation.  Poland  has  one  writer  who  is  known 
to  English  readers,  Sienkiewicz,  whose  "  Quo  Vadis  " 
and  "  With  Fire  and  Sword  "  are  among  the  great 
novels  of  our  age.  I  should  recommend  that  admir- 
ers of  "  Ben  Hur  "  read  "  Quo  Vadis ''  and  get  a 
lesson  in  the  difference  between  a  masterpiece  and  a 
pleasant  book  that  is  very  much  less  than  a  master- 
piece. Readers  who  think  there  is  some  special  virtue 
in  American  humor — and  no  doubt  there  is — ought 
to  know  at  least  one  of  the  great  books  of  Spain, 
"  Don  Quixote.''  Spanish  has  become  an  important 
language  to  us  who  are  learning  about  our  neighbors, 
"  the  other  Americans,''  and  are  trying  to  wake  up 
our  lagging  trade  relations  with  them  and  our  back- 
ward sympathies.  The  young  man  going  into  busi- 
ness will  find  some  good  chances  open  to  him  if  he 
knows  Spanish,  and,  what  is  perhaps  quite  as  im- 
portant, he  will  find  that  Spain,  too,  has  a  modern 
literature. 

We  cannot  know  all  foreign  literatures,  but  we  can 
know  at  least  one.  Whether  we  visit  in  spirit  Italy 
or  Norway  or  Spain  or  Russia,  we  shall  be  learning 
the  great  lesson  of  literature,  that  our  brothers  the 
world  over  are  doing  and  thinking  and  hoping  the 
same  things  that  we  are.  Reading  foreign  books  ^  is 
the  cheapest  and  perhaps  the  wisest  kind  of  travel, 
for  the  body  rests  while  the  mind  goes  abroad. 

*  Books  in  foreign  languages  and  English  translations  will  be 
found  in  their  proper  place  in  the  lists  of  fiction,  poetry,  etc. 

216 


CHAPTEK   XI 
THE  PRESS  OF  TO-DAY 

IF  we  were  guiding  an  intelligent  stranger  from 
another  planet  through  our  busy  world,  before 
what  institution  should  we  pause  with  greatest  anx- 
iety to  explain  to  our  alien  comrade  its  meaning,  its 
value  ?  Perhaps  before  the  church,  yet  when  we  re- 
membered that  the  Bible  and  other  works  of  religion 
and  poetry  are  in  our  homes,  we  could  not  bring  our- 
selves to  tell  our  companion  that  the  church  is  the 
heart,  the  indispensable  fountain  of  our  religious  life. 
The  school  then  ?  Maybe  that,  yet  Knowledge  spends 
in  the  school  but  relatively  few  hours  of  her  day-long 
ministrations.  We  might  wax  eloquent  before  the 
hospitals,  but  they  are  only  repairing  some  of  the 
damages  which  man  and  nature  have  inflicted  upon 
a  small  part  of  the  race,  and  it  is  the  healthy  major 
portion  of  humanity  that  carries  on  the  life  of  the 
world  and  does  whatever  is  worth  doing.  It  would 
be  simple  to  explain  the  thundering  factories  whose 
din  drowns  the  voice  of  the  expositor,  to  tell  how  in 
yonder  building  are  made  the  machines  that  cut  and 
thresh  the  wheat  that  feeds  the  world,  and  how  in 
the  building  beyond  are  made  the  cars  that  bring 
the  wheat  from  the  fields  to  the  teeming  towns.    All 

217 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

these  institutions  are  wonderful,  all  are  essential  in 
our  life.  Yet  greater  than  any,  more  difficult  to  ex- 
plain, inspiring  and  disheartening,  grinding  good  and 
evil,  is  the  press,  from  which  our  visitor  could  see 
streaming  forth  thousands  of  tons  of  paper  blackened 
with  the  imprint  of  little  types. 

The  stranger  could  see  that.  We  should  have  to 
make  it  clear  to  him  that  those  types  are  turn- 
ing over  once  a  year  almost  all  that  man  has 
ever  known  and  thought.  The  contemporary  press  is 
engaged  in  three  kinds  of  activity:  the  reprinting  of 
old  books,  the  printing  of  new  ones,  and  the  printing 
of  the  magazines,  periodicals,  newspapers,  and  other 
communications  relating  to  the  conduct  of  daily  busi- 
ness. 

The  first  activity,  the  printing  of  old  books,  is  an 
unmixed  blessing.  Every  book,  great  or  small,  that 
the  world  has  found  worth  preserving  is  continuously 
revived  and  redistributed  to  our  generation,  ^ever 
before  were  the  classics  of  the  ages  so  cheap,  so 
accessible  to  the  common  man. 

Toward  the  second  product  of  the  whirling  presses, 
the  books  of  to-day,  our  attitude  may  easily  become 
too  censorious  or  too  complacent.  It  is  the  fashion 
to  slander  the  productions  of  one's  own  age  and  re- 
call with  a  sigh  the  good  old  days  when  there  were 
giants.  But  in  those  good  old  days  it  was  fashion- 
able, too,  to  underrate  or  ignore  the  living  and  praise 
the  dead.  When  the  Elizabethan  age  was  waning 
but  not  vanished,  Ben  Jonson  wrote :  "  !N'ow  things 
daily  fall,  wits  grow  downward,  and  eloquence  grows 

218 


The  Pressi  of  To-Day 

backward."  And  yet  Milton,  the  greatest  poet  after 
Shakespeare,  was  even  then  a  young  man  and  had 
not  done  his  noblest  work.  A  century  later  Pope 
wrote: 

Be  thou  the  first  true  merit  to  befriend ; 
His  praise  is  lost  who  stays  till  all  commend. 
Short  is  the  date,  alas,  of  modern  rhymes, 
And  'tis  but  just  to  let  them  live  betimes. 
No  longer  now  the  golden  age  appears 
When  Patriarch-wits  surviv'd  a  thousand  years: 
Now  length  of  Fame  (our  second  Hfe)  is  lost, 
And  bare  three  score  is  all  even  that  can  boast; 
Our  sons  their  fathers'  failing  language  see, 
And  such  as  Chaucer  is  shall  Dryden  be. 

But  Chaucer  is  more  alive  now  than  he  was  in 
Pope's  day,  and  both  Dryden  and  Pope  are  brightly 
modern  in  diction  if  not  in  thought.  Pope's  idea 
is  not  so  much  that  his  contemporaries  are  unworthy 
of  long  life  as  that  changes  in  taste  and  language  will 
soon  make  their  work  obsolete.  He  pleads  for  his 
contemporaries,  yet  like  many  another  critic  he  is 
laudator  temporis  acti,  a  praiser  of  times  past  and 
done.  His  injunction  that  we  befriend  and  com- 
mend our  neighbor's  merit  before  it  speedily  perishes 
is  generous  but  fails  to  recognize  that  merit,  true 
merit,  does  not  die.  This  is  certainly  true  in  our 
time  when  books  are  so  easily  manifolded  and  come 
into  so  many  hands  that  there  is  little  likelihood  of 
a  real  poet's  work  being  accidentally  annihilated, 
or  failing  to  find  a  reader  somewhere  in  the  world. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  pessimism  about  current 
219 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

literary  productions  was  almost  chronic,  at  least 
among  professional  critics.  The  Edinburgh  Review- 
ers and  the  other  Scotch  terrier,  Thomas  Carlyle, 
set  the  whole  century  to  growling  at  itself.  Thoreau, 
with  a  humorous  parenthesis  to  the  effect  that  it  is 
permissible  to  slander  one's  own  time,  says  that 
Elizabethan  writers — and  he  seems  to  be  speaking 
not  of  the  poets  but  the  prose  writers — have  a  greater 
vigor  and  naturalness  than  the  more  modern,  and 
that  a  quotation  from  an  Elizabethan  in  a  modern 
writer  is  like  a  green  bough  laid  across  the  page. 
Stevenson  says  we  are  fine  fellows  but  cannot  write 
like  Hazlitt  (there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
write  like  Hazlitt,  or  like  anybody  else  in  partic- 
ular). Emerson,  tolerant  and  generous  toward  his 
contemporaries,  looks  askance  at  new  books,  implies 
with  an  ambiguous  "  if  '^  that  "  our  times  are  sterile 
in  genius,''  and  lays  down  as  a  practical  rule,  "  l^ever 
read  any  book  that  is  not  a  year  old," — ^which  being 
translated  means,  "  Encourage  literature  by  starving 
your  authors." 

As  we  have  said,  most  of  the  great  authors  are 
dead  because  most  of  the  people  ever  born  in  this 
world  are  dead.  And  it  is  natural  for  bookmen  to 
glance  about  their  libraries,  review  the  dignified 
backs  of  a  hundred  classics,  and  then,  looking  the 
modern  world  in  the  face,  say,  "  Can  any  of  you 
fellows  do  as  well  as  these  great  ones  ?  "  To  be  sure, 
one  age  cannot  rival  the  selected  achievements  of  a 
hundred  ages.  But  the  Spirit  of  Literature  is  abroad 
in  our  garish  modern  times;  she  has  been  continu- 

220 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

ously  occupied  for  at  least  three  centuries  in  every 
civilized  country  in  the  world.  And,  as  Pope  pleads, 
let  us  welcome  the  labors  of  those  whom  the  Spirit 
of  Literature  brushes  with  her  wing. 

So  far  as  one  can  judge,  a  very  small  part  of  con- 
temporaneous writing  has  literary  excellence  in  any 
degree.  But  a  similarly  small  portion  of  the  writing 
of  any  age  has  had  lasting  excellence ;  and  more  men 
and  women,  more  kinds  of  men  and  women,  are  to- 
day expressing  themselves  in  print  than  ever  in  the 
world  before.  Since  no  one  person  has  to  read  many 
books,  the  world  is  not  unduly  burdened  with  them ; 
it  can  read,  classify,  and  reject  or  preserve  all  that 
the  presses  are  capable  of  putting  forth.  "  The 
trash  with  which  the  press  now  groans  "  was  foolish 
cant  a  hundred  years  ago,  when  Jane  Austen  satiric- 
ally quoted  it.^  And  it  is  more  threadbare  now  than 
it  was  then.  There  are  alive  to-day  a  goodly  company 
of  competent  writers  of  novels;  I  could  name  ten. 
I  believe,  too,  that  there  are  genuine  poets,  though 
we  do  not  dare  name  young  poets  until  they  are  dead. 
History  and  biography  are,  regarded  as  a  collective 
institution,  in  flourishing  state,  though,  to  be  sure,  the 
work  of  art  in  those  departments  of  literature  as  in 
poetry  and  fiction,  appears  none  too  frequently.  It 
is  our  part  to  join  in  the  work  of  that  great  critic, 
the  World,  encourage  the  good  and  discourage  the 
bad,  and  help  make  the  best  book  the  "  best  seller." 

It  would  be  foolish  to  hope  for  that  ideal  condi- 
tion in  which  only  authors  of  ability  should  write 
^  See  page  42. 
221 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

books.  "  Were  angels  to  write,  I  fancy  we  should 
have  but  few  folios.''  But  writing  is  a  human  affair, 
and  human  labor  is  necessarily  wasteful.  We  have 
to  endure  the  printing  of  a  hundred  poor  books  and 
we  have  to  support  a  score  of  inferior  writers  in 
order  to  get  one  good  book  and  give  one  talented 
writer  a  part  of  his  living.  Thousands  of  machines 
are  built  and  thrown  away  before  the  Wrights  make 
one  that  will  fly,  and  they  could  not  make  theirs  if 
other  men  had  not  tried  and  in  large  part  failed, 
bequeathing  them  a  little  experience.  A  hundred 
men  for  a  hundred  years  contributed  to  the  making 
of  Bell's  telephone.  We  do  not  grudge  the  wasted 
machines,  the  broken  apparatus  in  the  laboratory. 
So,  too,  when  hundreds  of  minor  poets  print  their 
little  books  and  suffer  heartache  and  disappointment 
for  the  sake  of  the  one  volume  of  verse  that  shows 
genius,  we  need  not  groan  amid  the  whir  of  the 
presses;  we  need  only  contemplate  with  sympathy 
and  understanding  the  pathetic  losses  and  brave  gains 
of  human  endeavor.  IN^umberless  books  must  be  born 
and  die  in  order  that  the  one  or  two  may  live.  We 
shall  try  to  ignore  the  minor  versifier  as  gently  as 
possible,  to  suppress  the  cheap  novelist  as  firmly  as 
we  can,  and  give  our  dollar  for  the  good  book  when 
we  think  we  have  found  it. 

The  third  part  of  the  printed  matter  published 
from  day  to  day,  periodicals  and  magazines  and  news- 
papers, presents  a  complex  problem.  It  is  in  place 
for  us  to  say  a  word  about  it,  for  this  is  avowedly 
a  guide  to  reading  and  not  a  guide  to  literature,  and 

222 
/ 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

most  of  us  spend,  properly,  a  good  third  of  our  read- 
ing time  over  magazines  and  newspapers.  Much 
depends  on  our  making  ourselves  not  only  intelligent 
readers  of  books  but  intelligent  readers  of  periodicals 
and  papers. 

The  magazine  industry  in  America  is  colossal,  and 
its  chief  support  is  that  amazing  business  institution, 
American  advertising.  The  public  pays  a  big  tax 
on  flour,  shoes,  clothes,  paint,  and  every  other  com- 
modity in  order  that  advertisers  may  pay  for  space 
in  periodicals  and  newspapers.  The  periodicals  and 
newspapers,  in  turn,  pay  writers  from  a  fiftieth  to  a 
twentieth  of  the  income  from  advertising  in  order 
to  make  the  advertising  medium  interesting  enough 
for  people  to  buy  it. 

In  this  the  magazine  manufacturers  are  on  the 
whole  successful.  Perhaps  there  are  sages  and 
seers  who  can  live  content  with  bound  books  and 
prefer  that  those  books  should  be  at  least  fifty  years 
old.  I  know  of  one  man,  a  constant  reader  of  poetry 
and  philosophy,  who  tried  the  experiment  of  retiring 
to  his  library  and  stopping  all  his  subscriptions  to 
the  current  periodicals.  The  experiment  was  an  ut- 
ter failure,  because  he  was  a  man  of  active  intelli- 
gence, and  because,  in  truth,  the  magazines,  many 
of  them,  are  very  good.  'No  less  a  philosopher  than 
Professor  William  James  said  in  a  recent  article: 
''  McClure's  Magazine,  The  American  Magazine,  Col- 
lier's Weekly  and  in  its  fashion,  The  World's  Worh, 
constitute  together  a  real  popular  university.  .  .  . 
It  would  be  a  pity  if  any  future  historian  were  to 

223 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

have  to  write  words  like  these :  '  B j  the  middle  of 
the  twentieth  century  the  higher  institutions  of  learn- 
ing had  lost  all  influence  over  public  opinion  in  the 
United  States.  But  the  mission  of  raising  the  tone 
of  democracy  which  they  had  proved  themselves  so 
lamentably  unfitted  to  exert,  was  assumed  with  rare 
enthusiasm  and  prosecuted  with  extraordinary  skill 
and  success  by  a  new  educational  power ;  and  for  the 
clarification  of  their  human  preferences,  the  people 
at  large  acquired  the  habit  of  resorting  exclusively 
to  the  guidance  of  certain  private  literary  ventures, 
commonly  designated  in  the  market  by  the  affec- 
tionate name  of  ten-cent  magazines.'  Must  not  we 
of  the  colleges  see  to  it  that  no  historian  shall  ever 
say  anything  like  this  ?  " 

The  possible  failure,  here  implied,  of  universities 
to  lead  in  the  subjects  which  they  profess  to  study 
has  already  become  actual  in  the  departments  of 
English  literature.  Of  this  we  shall  say  something 
in  the  next  chapter. 

It  is,  however,  the  other  side  of  the  matter  that  is 
important.  Our  best  magazines  are  vital:  they  are 
enlisting  the  services  of  every  kind  of  thinker  and 
teacher  and  man  of  experience,  and  they  are  printing 
as  good  fiction  and  verse  as  they  can  get;  certainly 
they  are  not  willfully  printing  inferior  work.  But 
it  is  not  the  fiction  or  the  verse  in  the  magazines  that 
is  of  greatest  moment,  even  when  it  is  good.  The 
value  of  the  magazine  lies  in  the  miscellaneous  con- 
tributions on  science,  politics,  medicine,  and  current 
affairs,  which  seem  to  me  of  continuously  good  sub- 

224 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

stance  from  month  to  month.  And  the  literary  quality 
of  these  articles  (the  words  I  quoted  from  Professor 
James  are  from  a  fine  article  printed  in  a  popular 
magazine,  McClure's)  is,  on  the  whole,  just  as  high 
as  the  average  in  the  old  Edinburgh  Review,  through 
which  Sydney  Smith,  Lord  Jeffrey,  and  others,  with 
stinging  and  brilliant  essays,  helped  to  reform  that 
terribly  brutal  England  of  the  early  nineteenth 
century. 

It  is  easy  to  find  fault  with  the  magazines.  You 
may  say  that  the  Atlantic  Monthly  is  pseudo-literary 
and  seems  to  be  living  on  the  sweepings  of  a  IN'ew 
England  culture  of  which  all  the  important  repre- 
sentatives died  twenty  years  ago.  You  may  say  that 
the  Nation  often  sounds  as  if  it  were  written  by  the 
more  narrow-minded  sort  of  college  professor.  You 
may  say  that  the  Outlooh  is  permeated  by  a  weak 
religiosity.  All  the  same,  if  you  see  on  a  man's  table 
the  Atlantic  Monthly,  the  Nation,  and  the  Outlooh, 
and  the  copies  look  as  if  they  had  been  read,  you 
may  be  reasonably  sure  that  that  man  appreciates 
good  writing  and  has  a  just-minded  view  of  public 
questions. 

Of  the  lighter,  more  "  entertaining "  magazines 
there  are,  from  an  ideal  point  of  view,  too  many,  and 
the  large  circulation  of  some  of  the  sillier  ones  indi- 
cates what  we  all  know  and  need  not  moralize  about 
— ^that  there  are  millions  of  uneducated  people  who 
want  something  to  read.  It  is,  however,  a  matter  for 
congratulation  that  some  of  the  best  magazines, 
McClure's,     Collier's,     The     Youth's     Companion, 

225 


A  Guide  to  Keading 

Everybody's,  have  large  circulations,  and  that  our 
respectable  and  well-bred  old  friends,  Scrihner's, 
Harper's,   the   Century,   are  national   institutions.^ 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  the  American 
magazine  and  the  American  newspaper  are  prod- 
ucts of  the  same  nation;  the  magazine  is  so  honest 
and  so  able,  the  newspaper  so  dishonest  and  so 
ignorant  except  in  its  genius  for  making  money 
and  sending  chills  up  the  back.  We  will  not  waste 
our  time  by  turning  the  rest  of  this  chapter  into  an 
article  demanding  a  "  reform "  of  the  newspapers, 
but  in  the  spirit  of  a  conscientious  guide  of  young 
readers  we  will  make  two  or  three  observations. 

The  advertising  departments  of  the  American 
newspaper,  with  few  exceptions,  differ  from  the  ad- 
vertising departments  of  all  reputable  magazines,  in 
that  the  newspaper  proprietors  take  no  responsibility 
for  the  character  of  the  advertisements.  The  maga- 
zines reject  all  advertisements  that  the  managers 
know  to  be  fraudulent.  The  newspapers  do  not  reject 
them.  Let  the  reader  draw  his  own  conclusions  as 
to  the  trustworthiness  of  his  daily  paper  as  a  busi- 
ness institution  and  a  purveyor  of  the  truth.  When 
we  have  a  generation  of  Americans  who  understand 
the  business  dishonesty  of  the  newspaper  and  what 
it  implies  about  the  character  of  the  news  and  the 
editorials,  the  newspapers  will  be  better  in  all  de- 

*  They  seem  to  be  international  institutions  if  one  is  to  believe 
the  story  of  the  English  lady  who,  comparing  the  United  States 
unfavorably  with  her  own  country,  said  to  an  American:  "You 
have  nothing  equal  to  our  Century,  Harper's,  and  Scribner's.'* 
Those  magazines  publish  English  editions. 

226 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

partments.  Meanwhile,  all  our  writing  about  the 
low  quality  of  our  daily  press  will  have  little 
effect. 

In  the  matter  of  journalistic  honesty  in  the  news 
and  editorial  departments,  let  us  understand  this: 
With  few  exceptions,  American  newspapers  are  so 
irresponsible  that  no  unsupported  statement  appear- 
ing in  them  is  to  be  counted  on  as  the  truth  or  as 
a  fair  expression  of  what  the  men  in  the  editorial 
offices  believe  to  be  the  truth.  Of  course,  much  of 
every  daily  paper  is  true,  because  the  proprietors 
have  no  motive  in  most  cases  for  telling  anything 
untrue.  In  order  to  give  some  weight  to  these 
opinions  I  may  say  that  for  a  number  of  years 
I  was  an  exchange  editor  and  read  newspapers  from 
all  parts  of  America.  Also,  for  a  number  of  years 
I  acted  as  private  secretary  to  a  distinguished  person 
whose  name  is  often  in  the  newspapers,  and  whose 
position  is  such  that  no  editor  can  have  any  motive, 
except  the  desire  to  print  a  "  story,"  for  connecting 
the  name  with  any  untrue  idea.  From  a  collection 
of  fifty  clippings  made  from  American  newspapers 
in  a  period  of  two  years  I  find  over  thirty  that  are 
mainly  incorrect  and  contain  ideas  invented  at  the 
reporter's  or  the  editor's  desk;  more  than  ten  that 
are  entire  fabrications;  and  ^ve  that  are  not  only 
untrue,  but  damaging  to  the  peace  of  mind  of  the 
subject  and  other  interested  persons.  And  under  all 
this  is  not  a  touch  of  malice,  for  toward  that  person 
the  entire  press  and  public  are  friendly.  Imagine  the 
lies  that  are  told  about  a  person  to  whom  the  editors 

227 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

(or,  rather,  the  owners)  are  indifferent  or  un- 
friendly ! 

When  one  considers  the  energy  and  enterprise  of 
the  newspaper,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  there 
is  not  more  literary  ability,  at  least  of  the  humbler 
kind,  in  the  news  columns,  the  reviews  and  the  edi- 
torial comments.  One  reason  is,  perhaps,  that  the 
magazines  take  all  the  best  journalistic  ability,  so 
far  as  that  ability  consists  in  skill  in  the  use  of  lan- 
guage; any  journalist  or  writer  on  special  subjects 
prints  his  work  in  the  magazines  if  he  can,  and  the 
newspapers  get  what  is  left.  Editorial  writing  is  at 
such  a  low  pitch  that  there  are  only  two  or  three 
real  editorial  pages  in  the  daily  press  of  the  nation. 
The  reporting  is  often  clever  and  quite  as  often  with- 
out conscience.  The  machinery  for  gathering  world 
news  is  amazingly  well  organized.  Other  kinds  of 
ability  are  abundant  in  the  newspaper  office;  and  it 
is  a  natural  economic  fact  that  the  most  debased 
papers,  making  the  most  money,  can  hire  the  most 
talented  men — and  debauch  them;  while  the  more 
conscientious  paper,  struggling  in  competition  with 
its  rich  and  dishonest  rivals,  cannot  afford  to  pay 
for  the  best  editors  and  reporters. 

If  the  rising  generation  will  understand  this  and 
grow  up  with  an  increasing  distrust  of  the  news- 
paper, the  newspaper  will  reform  in  obedience  to 
the  demand  of  the  public,  the  silent  demand  ex- 
pressed by  the  greater  circulation  of  good  papers  and 
the  failure  of  these  that  are  degrading  and  degraded. 

We  called  in  the  opinions  of  one  philosopher,  Pro- 
228 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

fessor  James,  to  support  our  view  of  the  American 
magazine.  Let  us  summon  another  philosopher  to 
corroborate  in  part  our  view  of  the  newspapers,  to 
show  that  the  foregoing  opinions  are  not  (as  some 
newspapers  would  probably  affirm  if  they  noticed  the 
matter  at  all),  the  complaints  of  a  crank  who  does 
not  understand  "  practical  "  newspaper  work.  Our 
philosopher  will  confirm,  too,  the  belief  of  this  Guide 
that  the  ethics  of  the  newspaper  is  of  importance 
to  the  young  reader.  The  newspaper  is  ours.  We 
must  have  it;  it  renders  indispensable  service  to  all 
departments  of  our  life,  business,  education,  phi- 
lanthropy, politics.  We  cannot  turn  our  backs  on  it ; 
we  cannot  in  lofty  scorn  reject  the  newsboy  at  the 
door.  It  is  for  us  to  understand  the  constitution  and 
methods  of  the  daily  press  and  not  be  duped  by 
its  grosser  treacheries  as  our  fathers  have  been.  I 
quote  from  The  OutlooJc  a  letter  from  Professor 
George  Herbert  Palmer,  whose  name  will  be  found 
elsewhere  in  this  book  as  philosopher  and  translator 
of  the  "  Odyssey." 

''To  the  Editor  of  'The  Outlooh': 

"  SiE :  May  I  make  use  of  your  columns  for  a 
personal  explanation  and  also  to  set  forth  certain 
traits  in  our  press  and  people  which  manifest  them- 
selves, I  believe,  in  an  equal  degree  in  no  other 
country  ? 

"The  personal  facts  are  these:  On  June  16th  I 
delivered  a  Commencement  address  at  a  girls'  college 
in  Boston,  taking  for  my  subject  the  common  objec- 

229 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

tions  to  the  higher  education  of  women,  objections 
generally  rather  felt  than  formulated  by  hesitating 
mothers.  Five  were  mentioned :  the  danger  to  health, 
to  manners,  to  marriage,  to  religion,  and  to  com- 
panionship with  parents  in  the  home.  These  I  de- 
scribed from  the  parents'  point  of  view,  and  then 
pointed  out  the  misconceptions  on  which  I  believed 
them  to  rest.  In  speaking  of  manners,  I  said  that 
a  mother  often  fears  that  attention  to  study  may 
make  her  daughter  awkward,  keep  her  unfamiliar 
with  the  general  world,  and  leave  her  unfit  for  mixed 
society.  To  which  I  replied  that  in  the  rare  cases 
where  intellectual  interests  do  for  a  time  overshadow 
the  social,  we  may  well  bear  in  mind  the  relative 
difficulties  of  subsequent  repair.  A  girl  who  has 
had  only  social  interests  before  twenty-one  does  not 
usually  gain  intellectual  ones  afterwards;  while  the 
ways  of  the  world  are  rapidly  acquired  by  any  young 
woman  of  brains.  To  illustrate,  I  told  of  a  strong 
student  of  Eadcliffe  who  had  lived  much  withdrawn! 
during  her  course  there,  alarming  her  uncollegiate 
parents  by  her  slender  interest  in  social  functions. 
At  graduation  they  pressed  her  to  devote  a  year  to 
balls  and  dinners  and  to  what  they  regarded  as  the 
occult  art  of  manners.  She  came  to  me  for  counsel, 
and  I  advised  her  to  accede  to  their  wishes.  '  Flirt 
hard,  M.,^  said  I,  '  and  show  that  a  college  girl  is 
equal  to  whatever  is  required  of  her.'  This  was  the 
only  allusion  to  the  naughty  topic  which  my  speech, 
an  hour  in  length,  contained. 

"  That  evening  one  of  the  ^  yellowest '  of  the  Boston 
230 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

papers  printed  a  report  of  my  '  Address  on  Flirta- 
tion/ and  the  next  day  a  reporter  came  from  the 
same  paper  requesting  an  interview.  The  interview 
I  refused,  saying  that  I  had  given  no  such  address 
and  I  wished  my  name  kept  altogether  out  of  print. 
The  following  Sunday,  however,  the  bubble  was  fully 
blown,  the  paper  printing  a  column  of  pretended  in- 
terview, generously  adorned  with  headlines  and  quo- 
tation marks,  setting  forth  in  gay  colors  my  *  ad- 
vocacy of  flirtation.' 

"  And  now  the  dirty  bubble  began  to  float.  ^tsTot 
being  a  constant  reader  of  this  particular  paper,  I 
knew  nothing  of  its  mischief  until  a  week  had  gone 
by.  Then  remonstrances  began  to  be  sent  to  me 
from  all  parts  of  the  country,  denouncing  my  hoary 
frivolity.  From  half  the  states  of  the  Union  they 
came,  and  in  such  numbers  that  few  days  of  the 
past  month  have  been  free  from  a  morning  insult. 
My  mail  has  been  crowded  with  solemn  or  derisive 
editorials,  with  distressed  letters,  abusive  postal 
cards,  and  occasionally  the  leaflet  of  some  society 
for  the  prevention  of  vice,  its  significant  passages 
marked.  During  all  this  hullabaloo  I  have  been 
silent.  The  story  was  already  widespread  when  my 
attention  was  first  called  to  it.  It  struck  me  then 
as  merely  a  gigantic  piece  of  summer  silliness,  argu- 
ing emptiness  of  the  editorial  mind.  I  felt,  too,  how 
easily  a  man  makes  himself  ridiculous  in  attempting 
to  prove  that  he  is  not  a  fit  subject  for  ridicule,  and 
how  in  the  long  run  character  is  its  own  best  vindica- 
tion.    I  should  accordingly  prefer  to  remain  silent 

231 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

still ;  but  the  story,  like  all  that  touches  on  questions 
of  sex,  has  shown  a  strange  persistency.  My  friends 
are  disquieted.  Harvard  is  defamed.  Eeports  of  my 
depravity  have  lately  been  sent  to  me  from  English 
and  French  papers,  and  in  a  recent  number  of  Life 
I  appear  in  a  capital  cartoon,  my  utterance  being 
reckoned  one  of  the  principal  events  of  the  month. 
Perhaps,  then,  it  is  as  well  to  say  that  no  such  inci- 
dent has  occurred,  and  that  now,  when  all  of  us  have 
had  our  laugh,  the  racket  had  better  cease. 

"  But  such  persistent  pursuit  of  an  unoffending 
person  throws  into  strong  relief  four  defects  in  our 
newspapers,  and  especially  in  the  attitude  of  our 
people  toward  them.  In  the  first  place,  the  plan  of 
reporting  practiced  here  is  a  mistaken  one,  and  is 
adopted,  so  far  as  I  know,  nowhere  else  on  earth. 
Our  papers  rarely  try  to  give  an  ordered  outline  of 
an  address.  They  either  report  verbatim,  or  more 
usually  the  reporter  is  expected  to  gather  a  lot  of 
taking  phrases,  regardless  of  connection.  While 
these  may  occasionally  amuse,  I  believe  that  readers 
turn  less  and  less  to  printed  reports  of  addresses. 
Serious  reporting  of  public  speech  is  coming  to  an 
end.  It  would  be  well  if  it  ended  altogether,  so  im- 
possible is  it  already  to  learn  from  the  newspapers 
what  a  man  has  been  saying. 

"  Of  the  indifference  to  truth  in  the  lower  class 
of  our  papers,  their  vulgarity,  intrusions  into  private 
life,  and  eagerness  at  all  hazards  to  print  something 
startling,  I  say  little,  because  these  characteristics  are 
widely  known  and  deplored.     It  apparently  did  not 

232 


The  Press  of  To-Day 

occur  to  any  of  my  abusers  to  look  up  the  evidence 
of  my  folly.  I  dare  say  it  was  the  very  unlikelihood 
of  the  tale  which  gave  it  currency.  I  was  in  general 
known  to  be  a  quiet  person,  with  no  liking  for  noto- 
riety, a  teacher  of  one  of  the  gravest  subjects  in  a 
dignified  university.  I  had  just  published  a  largely 
circulated  biography,  presenting  an  exalted  ideal  of 
marriage.  It  struck  the  press  of  the  country  as  a 
diverting  thing  to  reverse  all  this  in  a  day,  to  picture 
me  as  favoring  loose  relations  of  the  sexes,  and  to 
attribute  to  me  buffoonery  from  which  every  decent 
man  recoils. 

"  Again,  our  people  seem  growing  incapable  of 
taking  a  joke — or  rather  of  taking  anything  else. 
The  line  which  parts  lightness  from  reality  is  be- 
coming blurred.  My  lively  remark  has  served  as  the 
subject  for  portentous  sermonizing,  while  the  earnest 
appeal  made  later  in  my  address  to  look  upon  mar- 
riage seriously,  as  that  which  gives  life  its  best 
meaning,  has  been  either  passed  by  in  silence  or  men- 
tioned as  giving  additional  point  to  my  nonsense. 
The  passion  for  facetiousness  is  taking  the  heart 
out  of  our  people  and  killing  true  merriment.  The 
'  funny  column '  has  so  long  used  marriage  and  its 
accompaniments  as  a  standing  jest  that  it  is  becom- 
ing difficult  to  think  of  it  in  any  other  way,  and 
the  divorce  court  appears  as  merely  the  natural  end 
of  the  comedy. 

"  The  part  of  this  affair,  however,  which  should 
give  us  gravest  concern  is  the  lazy  credulity  of  the 
public.     They  know  the  recklessness  of  journalism 

233 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

as  clearly  as  do  I,  on  whom  its  dirty  water  has  been 
poured.  Yet  readers  trust,  and  journal  copies  jour- 
nal, as  securely  as  if  the  authorities  were  quite  above 
suspicion.  Once  started  by  the  sensational  press, 
my  enormities  were  taken  up  with  amazing  swiftness 
by  the  respectable  and  religious  papers,  and  by  many 
thousands  of  their  readers.  It  is  this  easy  trust  on 
the  part  of  the  public  which  perpetuates  newspaper 
mendacity.  What  inducement  has  a  paper  to  criticise 
its  statements  when  it  knows  they  will  never  be  criti- 
cised by  its  readers?  l^othing  in  all  this  curious 
business  has  surprised  me  more  than  the  ease  with 
which  the  American  people  can  be  hoaxed.  One 
would  expect  decent  persons  to  put  two  and  two  to- 
gether, and  not  to  let  a  story  gain  acceptance  from 
them  unless  it  had  some  relation  to  the  character  of 
him  of  whom  it  was  told.  I  please  myself  with  think- 
ing that  if  a  piece  of  profanity  were  reported  of 
President  Taft  I  should  think  no  worse  of  President 
Taft,  but  very  badly  and  loudly  of  that  paper.  But, 
perhaps  I,  too,  am  an  American.  Perhaps  I,  too, 
might  rest  satisfied  with  saying,  *  I  saw  it  in  print.' 
Only  then  I  should  be  unreasonable  to  complain  of 
bad  newspapers. 

"G.  H.  Palmee.'' 


234 


CHAPTEE   XII 
THE  STUDY  OF  LITERATURE 

I!N"  our  age  of  free  libraries  and  cheap  editions  of 
good  books  anyone  who  has  time  and  disposition 
may  become  not  merely  a  reader  of  literature,  but  a 
student  of  literature.  The  difference  is  not  great, 
perhaps  not  important;  it  seems  to  be  only  a  matter 
of  attitude  and  method.  The  reader  opens  any  book 
that  falls  in  his  way  or  to  which  he  is  led  for  any 
reason,  tries  a  page  or  two  of  it,  and  continues  or 
not,  at  pleasure.  The  student  opens  a  book  which 
he  has  deliberately  sought  and  brings  to  it  not  only 
the  tastes  and  moods  of  the  ordinary  reader,  but  a 
determination  to  know  the  book,  however  much  or 
little  it  may  please  him.  He  is  impelled  not  only  to 
know  the  book,  with  his  critical  faculties  more  or 
less  consciously  awake,  but  to  know  the  circumstances 
under  which  the  book  was  written,  and  its  relation  to 
other  books.  One  may  read  "  Hamlet "  ten  times 
and  know  much  of  it  by  heart  and  still  not  be  a 
student  of  "  Hamlet,"  much  less  a  student  of  Shake- 
speare. The  student  feels  it  necessary  to  know  the 
other  plays  of  Shakespeare,  some  of  the  other  Eliza- 
bethan dramatists,  a  little  of  the  history  and  biog- 
raphy of  Shakespeare's  time,  and  something,  too,  of 

235 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

the  best  critical  literature  that  "  Hamlet "  has  in- 
spired in  the  past  two  centuries.  The  study  of  lit- 
erature implies  order  and  method  in  the  selection  of 
books,  and  orderly  reading  in  turn  implies  enough 
seriousness  and  willful  application  to  turn  the  act 
of  reading,  in  part,  from  play  to  work. 

Well,  then,  it  is  better  to  be  a  student  of  litera- 
ture than  a  mere  reader.  Ideally  that  is  true;  if 
there  were  years  enough  in  a  human  life  we  should 
like  to  be  students  of  everything  under  the  sun.  But 
the  conditions  of  life  limit  the  mere  reader  on  one 
side  and  the  student  on  the  other,  and  it  is  a  ques- 
tion which  one  is  ultimately  richer  in  mind.  A 
mere  reader  will  read  "  Hamlet  "  until  he  can  almost 
imagine  himself  standing  on  the  stage  able  to  speak 
the  lines  of  any  part.  The  student  of  literature  will 
read  "  Hamlet "  thoroughly,  investigate  its  real  or 
supposed  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  Shakespearian 
plays,  toil  through  a  large  volume  of  learned  notes 
and  opinions,  read  fifty  other  Elizabethan  tragedies 
and  a  half  dozen  volumes  on  the  life  and  works  of 
Shakespeare.  He  is  on  the  way  to  becoming  a  stu- 
dent of  Shakespeare.  But  while  he  is  struggling  with 
the  learned  notes,  the  mere  reader  is  reading,  say, 
Henley's  poems;  while  the  student  is  reading  the 
lesser  plays  of  Shakespeare,  the  mere  reader  is  en- 
joying Browning's  tragedies;  while  the  student  of 
"  Hamlet "  is  making  the  acquaintance  of  fifty  trag- 
edies by  Chapman,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Jonson, 
Marlowe,  Webster — less  than  ten  of  which  are 
masterpieces — ^the  idle  reader  is  wandering  through 

236 


The  Study  of  Literature 

Sterne's  "  Tristram  Shandy,"  ten  modern  novels, 
the  seventh  book  of  "  Paradise  Lost "  (that  noble 
Chant  of  Creation),  a  beautiful  new  edition  of 
the  poems  of  George  Herbert,  and  some  quite  un- 
related bits  of  prose  and  verse  that  happen  to  attract 
his  eye.  Which  of  the  two  has  pursued  the  happier, 
wiser  course?  Each  has  spent  his  time  well,  and 
each,  if  there  were  more  time,  might  profitably  follow 
the  other's  course  in  addition  to  his  own.  Intensive, 
orderly  reading,  like  that  of  the  student,  tends  to 
make  the  mind  methodical  and  certainly  furnishes 
it  with  a  coherent  body  of  related  ideas  on  which  to 
meditate.  Extensive  reading,  such  as  we  assume 
the  reader^s  will  be,  seems  to  engender  superficiality, 
and  yet  such  is  the  nature  of  books  and  human 
thought  that  scattered  reading  may  disclose  unex- 
pected and  vital  relations  of  idea.  Greater  effort  of 
will  is  required  to  keep  the  student  on  his  narrower 
course,  and  effort  of  will  is  profitable  to  the  spirit. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  mind  is  likely  to  have  keener 
appetite  for  what  it  meets  on  a  discursive  course,  and 
it  assimilates  and  absorbs  more  exhaustively  what 
it  approaches  with  natural,  unforced  interest.  "  It 
is  better,"  says  Johnson,  "  when  a  man  reads  from 
immediate  inclination." 

It  would  be  educational  anarchy  to  depreciate  or- 
derly intensive  study  of  any  subject,  and  we  shall 
presently  consider  some  helpful  introductions  to  the 
methodical  study  of  literature.  But  I  believe  that 
human  nature  and  human  conditions  favor  the  un- 
methodical reader,  and  that  he,  on  the  whole,  discov- 

237 


A  Guide  to  Keading 

ers  the  best  uses  of  books  in  the  world  as  it  is.  For 
in  the  world  as  it  is,  we  have  in  adult  life  thirty, 
forty,  fifty  years  in  which  to  read  books.  If  we 
consider  everything  a  book  from  the  little  volume 
which  occupies  half  an  hour  to  the  Bible  which  can- 
not be  read  through  once  intelligently  in  under  six 
months,  we  see  that  three  books  a  week  is  a  liberal 
number  for  an  assiduous  reader.  So  that  in  a  life- 
time one  cannot  expect  to  know  more  than  five  or 
six  thousand  books.  Five  thousand,  or  two  thousand, 
or  one  thousand  are  plenty  for  a  life  of  wisdom  and 
enjoyment.  The  five  thousand  or  the  one  thousand 
books  of  the  discursive  reader  are  likely  to  be  at 
least  as  good  a  collection  as  the  five  thousand  or  the 
one  thousand  of  the  student  of  literature.  Reader 
and  student  are  both  restricted  to  a  small  picking 
from  the  vineyard  of  books.  The  ordinary  reader 
will  have  spent  a  third  of  his  reading  hours  on  books 
that  have  meant  little  to  him.  The  student  will  have 
spent  a  third  of  his  time  in  digging  through  sapless, 
fiberless  volumes.  But  the  free  wandering  reader 
is  not  disturbed  by  the  number  of  books  he  has  read 
in  vain  or  by  the  vast  number  of  interesting  books 
he  has  not  read  at  all;  whereas  the  student  of  lit- 
erature is  lured  by  his  ideal  of  exhaustive  knowledge 
to  hurry  through  books  that  he  "  ought  to  know," 
and  in  desperation  is  tempted  to  insincere  preten- 
sions. 

In  no  class  of  readers  does  the  tendency  to  unwar- 
ranted assumptions  of  knowledge  show  more  comic- 
ally   than    in    those    advanced    students    of    books 

238 


The  Study  of  Literature 

who  are  called  Professors  of  English  Literature. 
Properly  speaking,  no  one  is  a  professor  of  literature 
except  the  man  who  can  produce  something  worth 
reading.  But  as  the  term  is  used  it  defines  a  class 
of  teachers  who  have  spent  much  time  and  study, 
not  as  writers  but  as  readers  of  books,  and  who  then 
set  themselves  up,  or  are  set  up  in  spite  of  individ- 
ual modesty  by  the  artificial  university  systems,  to 
"  teach "  literature.  The  professional  teacher  of 
literature  can  know  only  a  limited  number  of 
books.  And  while  he  has  been  reading  his  kind, 
his  unprofessional  neighbors,  even  his  students,  are 
reading  their  kind.  He  knows  some  literature  that 
they  do  not;  they  know  some  literature  that  he  does 
not.  The  chances  are  that  the  professor  and  not  the 
lay  reader  will  have  departed  the  farther  from  the 
true  uses  of  literature.  It  is  possible  to  read  a  num- 
ber of  good  books  while  the  professor  is  studying  what 
another  professor  says  in  reply  to  a  third  professor's 
opinions  about  what  Shakespeare  meant  in  a  certain 
passage.  The  professor  of  literature  seems  to  regard 
Shakespeare  and  other  poets  as  inspired  children 
who  need  a  grown  person  to  interpret  their  baby 
talk ;  whereas  the  lay  reader  takes  it  for  granted  that 
Shakespeare  had  more  or  less  definite  ideas  about 
what  he  wished  to  say  and  succeeded  in  saying  it 
with  admirable  clarity. 

To  be  sure,  a  professor  here  and  there  may  be 
found  who  is  a  live  and  virile  reader  of  poetry  like 
the  rest  of  us,  and  the  faults  of  pedantry  and  pre- 
tentious authority  are  not  inevitable  faults  of  the 

239 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

profession  as  a  whole.  There  is,  however,  one  uni- 
versal fault  of  the  professional  teacher  of  literature 
which  is  imposed  by  the  conditions  of  employment 
in  our  universities  and  is  subversive  of  the  true  pur- 
pose of  colleges  and  the  true  purposes  of  literature. 
One  fundamental  idea  of  a  college  is  to  afford  a 
certain  number  of  scholarly  men  the  means  of  liveli- 
hood from  college  endowments  in  order  that  they 
may  have  time  to  devote  to  books.  The  modern 
professor  of  literature  seems  to  have  so  many  duties 
of  administration  and  discipline  that  he  has  little 
time  to  read  for  the  sake  of  reading — which  is  the 
chief  reason  for  reading  at  all.  The  old  idea  of  a 
university  as  a  place  where  the  few  educated  members 
of  society  could  retire  for  study  and  intellectual  com- 
munion has  passed  away,  and  the  professor  of  litera- 
ture is  rather  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  modern  world 
where  there  are  more  educated  persons  outside  the 
universities  than  in  them,  and  where  the  cultivated 
person  of  leisure,  reading  literature  by  himself,  can 
easily  outstrip  the  professor. 

Professor  of  literature  ?  As  well  might  there  be  a 
professor  of  Life,  or  a  professor  of  Love,  or  a  pro- 
fessor of  Wisdom.  Literature  is  too  vast  for  any- 
one to  profess  it,  excepting  always  him  who  can 
contribute  to  it.  Even  if  our  professors  of  literature 
were  a  more  capable  class  of  men,  they  would  still 
be  anomalous  members  of  society,  for  they  are  trying 
to  do  an  anomalous  thing,  maintain  themselves  in 
authority  on  a  subject  which  is  open  to  everybody  in 
a  world  of  books  and  libraries.     And  they  are  work- 

240 


The  Study  of  Literature 

ing  under  conditions  not  only  not  helpful,  but 
distinctly  unfavorable  to  a  true  knowledge  and  enjoy- 
ment of  literature,  as  compared  with  the  conditions 
of  the  person  of  equal  intelligence  outside  the  college. 
My  purpose  is  not  so  much  to  dispraise  the  literary 
departments  of  universities  as  to  praise  a  world 
which  has  grown  so  rich  in  opportunities  that  the 
universities  are  no  longer  the  unique  leaders  in  lit- 
erature or  the  seats  of  the  best  knowledge  about  it. 
Our  masters  are  on  the  shelves  and  not  in  the  col- 
leges. (Carlyle,  Emerson,  and  Ruskin  all  said  that, 
and  it  was  said  before  them.)  Without  going  to 
college  we  can  become  students  of  literature,  pro- 
fessors of  literature,  if  we  have  the  talent  and  the 
will.  I  do  not  say  or  mean  that  we  should  not  go  to 
college  if  we  can.  I  mean  that  we  can  stay  away 
from  college  if  we  must  and  still  be  as  wise  and 
happy  readers  of  books  as  those  bachelors  of  arts  who 
have  sat  for  four  years  or  more  under  "  professors 
of  literature."  If  my  advice  were  sought  on  this 
point,  I  should  advise  every  boy  and  girl  to  go  to 
college  if  possible,  but  to  take  few  courses  in  English 
literature  and  English  composition.  One  great  ad- 
vantage of  a  college  course  is  that  it  offers  four  years 
of  comparative  leisure,  of  freedom  from  the  day's 
work  of  the  breadwinner;  and  in  those  four  years 
the  student,  with  a  good  library  at  hand,  can  read 
for  himself.  I  should  advise  the  student  to  take 
courses  in  foreign  languages,  history,  economics,  and 
the  sciences,  things  which  can  be  taught  in  classrooms 
and  laboratories  asd  are  usually  taught  by  experts. 

241 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

There  is  no  need  of  listening  to  a  professor  of  Eng- 
lish who  discourses  about  Walter  Scott  and  Shake- 
speare; we  can  read  them  without  assistance.  Lit- 
erature is  a  universal  possession  among  people  of 
general  intelligence.  It  is  made,  fostered,  and  en- 
joyed by  men  who  are  not  professors  of  literature 
in  the  meaningless  sense;  it  is  written  for  and  ad- 
dressed to  people  who  are  not  professors  of  literature ; 
and  it  is  understood  and  appreciated,  I  dare  affirm, 
by  no  intelligent,  cultivated  class  in  the  world  less 
certainly,  less  directly,  less  profitably  than  by  pro- 
fessors of  literature  in  the  modern  American  college. 
Well,  we  may  leave  our  little  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence from  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  author- 
ities in  literature,  and  turning  from  them  not  too  dis- 
respectfully, go  our  own  way.  Let  us  be  readers  of 
literature.  The  study  of  literature  will  take  care  of 
itself.  We  cannot  expect  to  know  as  much  about  the 
sources  of  " Hamlet''  as  Professor  Puppendorf  thinks 
he  knows.  ISTeither  can  we  hope  to  bring  as  much 
imagination  to  our  reading  as  Lamb  brought  to  his. 
But  of  the  two  masters  we  shall  follow  Lamb,  who 
was  not  a  professor,  nor  even,  it  seems,  a  student  of 
literature,  but  only  a  reader.  If  we  happen  to  be 
interested  in  Professor  Smith's  ideas  of  Milton,  we 
can  in  three  or  four  hours  read  his  handbook  on  the 
subject,  or,  better,  the  other  handbook  from  which  he 
got  his  ideas.  For  the  professors  do  not  keep  their 
wisdom  for  their  students  in  class ;  they  live,  in  spite 
of  themselves,  in  a  modern  world  and  publish  for  the 
general  reader  all  the  knowledge  they  have — and  a 

242 


The  Study  of  Literature 

little  more.  We  can  follow  the  professors,  if  we 
choose,  in  the  libraries.  But  probably  there  will  be 
more  wisdom  and  happiness  in  following  Lamb  or 
Stevenson,  or  some  other  reader  who  was  not  a  pro- 
fessor ;  they  tread  a  broader  highway  and  never  forget 
what  books  are  made  for.  We  may  well  follow  Dr.  S. 
M.  Crothers,  "  The  Gentle  Reader,"  who  seems  to 
have  been  enjoying  books  all  his  life  and  still  enjoys 
them,  though  he  lives  near  a  great  university.  An- 
other genial  guide  and  counselor,  whose  company  the 
younger  generation  might  well  seek  often,  is  Mr. 
Howells.  He  is  a  professor  of  literature  in  the  real 
sense,  because  he  makes  it.  He  is  also  a  reader  whose 
enthusiasms  are  fresh  and  individual.  Many  of  his 
recorded  impressions  of  contemporaneous  books  are 
buried  in  an  obscure  magazine,  and  his  reticence  has 
its  disadvantages  in  an  age  when  too  many  inept 
voices  chatter  about  books.  But  he  reads  books  and 
writes  about  them  because  he  likes  them,  and  so 
his  accounts  of  his  reading  are  rich  in  suggestion. 

Most  of  the  authentic  professors  of  literature,  that 
is,  the  men  who  have  produced  literature,  have  been 
readers  rather  than  students  of  books.  Keats,  I  am 
quite  sure,  had  neither  opportunity  nor  inclination 
to  make  a  formal  study  of  books,  even  of  the  old 
poets  from  whom  his  genius  drew  its  sustenance.  He 
seems  not  to  have  studied  Homer  or  the  English 
translation  by  the  Elizabethan  poet,  George  Chap- 
man. He  calls  his  sonnet  "  On  Eirst  Looking  Into 
Chapman's  Homer.''  You  see,  he  only  read  it,  only 
"  looked  into  "  it,  just  like  an  ordinary  reader.    But 

243 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

he  was  not  ordinary,  he  was  a  poet,  and  so  he  could 
write  this  of  his  experience  as  a  reader: 

Much  have  I  travel'd  in  the  realms  of  gold, 
And  many  goodly  states  and  kingdoms  seen; 
Round  many  western  islands  have  I  been, 

Which  bards  in  fealty  to  Apollo  hold.  f^ 

Oft  of  one  wide  expanse  had  I  been  told. 
That  deep-browed  Homer  ruled  as  his  demesne; 
z  Yet  never  did  I  breathe  its  pure  serene  * 

Till  I  heard  Chapman  speak  out  loud  and  bold; 

-  Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the  skies  «? 

When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken;  ^^i 

Or  like  stout  Cortez  when  with  eagle  eyes 

He  stared  at  the  Pacific — and  all  his  men 
Looked  at  each  other  with  a  wild  surmise — 

Silent,  upon  a  peak  in  Darien. 

Something  like  that  experience  ambushes  the  road 
of  any  reader,  the  most  commonplace  of  us.  We, 
too,  can  travel  in  the  realms  of  gold.  Only  three  or 
four  men  are  born  in  a  century  who  could  express 
the  experience  so  finely  as  that.  But  the  breathless 
adventure  can  be  ours,  even  if  we  cannot  write 
about  it. 

The  great  writers  themselves  are  the  best  guides 
to  one  another,  for  they  have  kept  the  reader's  point 
of  view — ^they  had  too  much  imagination,  as  a  rule, 
to  descend  to  any  other  point  of  view.  We  conjecture 
that  Shakespeare  was  an  omnivorous  reader.  And 
so,  certainly,  were  Milton,  Browning,  Tennyson, 
Shelley,  Carlyle,  George  Eliot,  Macaulay.  Nearly 
all  the  great  writers  have  been,  of  course,  lifelong, 

244 


J 


The  Study  of  Literature 

assiduous  students  of  the  technical  characteristics  of 
certain  kinds  of  literature  from  which  they  were 
learning  their  art.  The  poet  must  study  the  poets; 
the  novelist  must  study  the  novelists.  But  the  crea- 
tive artist  is  usually  far  from  being  a  scientific  or 
methodical  student  of  literature  as  it  is  laid  out  (sug- 
gestive words!),  in  handbooks  and  courses.  The  na- 
ture of  literature  and  the  experience  of  the  makers 
of  it  seem  to  confirm  us  in  the  belief  that  books  are 
to  be  read,  to  be  understood  and  enjoyed  as  they  come 
to  one^s  hands,  and  not  jammed  into  text-book  dia- 
grams of  periods  and  cycles  and  schools.  The  great 
writers  of  our  race,  those  obviously  who  know  most 
about  literature,  seem  to  have  taken  their  books  as 
they  took  life,  just  as  they  happened  to  come.  They 
were  wanderers,  not  tourists.  And  though  we  shall 
never  see  as  much  by  the  way  as  they  did  and  have 
not  the  power  to  travel  so  far,  we  can  roam  through 
"  many  goodly  states  and  kingdoms  "  and  be  sure  of 
inspiring  encounters,  if  only  a  small  comer  of  our 
nature  is  capable  of  being  inspired. 

But  as  travelers  in  lands  of  beauty  and  adventure 
may  profitably  spend  an  hour  a  day  in  searching  the 
guide  books  for  facts  about  what  they  have  seen  and 
directions  for  finding  the  most  interesting  places,  so 
the  reader,  without  sacrificing  his  spirit  of  freedom, 
may  well  equip  himself  with  a  few  handbooks  of 
literature.  Suppose  that  Keats  has  interested  us  in 
Chapman's  Homer.  Let  us  find  out  who  Chap- 
man was  and  when  he  lived.  A  fairly  reliable  book 
in  which  to  seek  for  him  is  Professor  George  Saints- 

245 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

bury's  "  History  of  Elizabethan  Literature."  It  is 
one  of  a  series  of  histories  in  which  the  volume  on 
"Early  English  Literature"  is  by  Mr.  Stopford. 
Brooke,  and  the  volume  on  "  English  Literature  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century  "  is  by  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse. 
We  find  in  Saintsbury's  handbook  ten  pages  of  biog- 
raphy and  criticism  of  Chapman  and  extracts  from 
his  poetry.  This  is  enough  to  give  a  little  notion  of 
Chapman's  place  in  literature  and  to  suggest  to  the 
ordinary  reader  whether  Chapman  is  a  writer  he  will 
wish  to  know  more  fully.  We  find  among  Mr.  Saints- 
bury's  comments  on  Chapman  the  following: 

"  The  splendid  sonnet  of  Keats  testifies  to  the 
influence  which  his  work  long  had  on  those  English- 
men who  were  unable  to  read  Homer  in  the  original. 
A  fine  essay  of  Mr.  Swinburne's  has  done,  for  the 
first  time,  justice  to  his  general  literary  powers,  and 
a  very  ingenious  and,  among  such  hazardous  things, 
unusually  probable  conjecture  of  Mr.  Minto's  identi- 
fies him  with  the  ^  rival  poet '  of  Shakespeare's  son- 
nets. But  these  are  adventitious  claims  to  fame. 
What  is  not  subject  to  such  deduction  is  the  assertion 
that  Chapman  was  a  great  Englishman  who,  while 
exemplifying  the  traditional  claim  of  great  English- 
men to  originality,  independence,  and  versatility  of 
work,  escaped  at  once  the  English  tendency  to  lack 
of  scholarship,  and  to  ignorance  of  contemporary 
continental  achievements,  was  entirely  free  from  the 
fatal  Philistinism  in  taste  and  in  politics,  and  in 
other  matters,  which  has  been  the  curse  of  our  race, 
was  a  Royalist,  a  lover,  a  scholar,  and  has  left  us 

246 


The  Study  of  Literature 

at  once  one  of  the  most  voluminous  and  peculiar  col- 
lections of  work  that  stand  to  the  credit  of  any  lit- 
erary man  of  his  country." 

Here,  in  this  paragraph,  we  stand  neck-deep  in  the 
study  of  literature,  its  exhilarating  eddies  of  opinion, 
its  mind-strengthening  difficulties,  and  also,  we  must 
confess,  its  harmless  dangers  and  absurdities.  Let  us 
run  over  Mr.  Saintsbury's  sentences  again  and  see 
whither  they  take  us. 

Keats's  sonnet — we  have  just  read  that — ^which 
Mr.  Saintsbury  says,  testifies  to  the  influence  of 
Chapman  for  a  long  time  on  Englishmen  who  could 
not  read  Greek,  really  does  nothing  of  the  sort.  It 
testifies  only  that  Keats  met  Chapman,  and  the  mo- 
mentous meeting  took  place,  in  point  of  fact,  at  a 
time  when  the  interest  in  Elizabethan  poetry  was 
reviving  after  a  century  that  preferred  Pope's 
"  Iliad  "  to  Chapman's.  Handbook  makers  some- 
times go  to  sleep  and  make  statements  like  that,  and 
it  is  just  as  well  that  they  do,  for  their  noddings 
tumble  them  from  their  Olympian  elevations  to  our 
level  and  help  to  make  them  intelligible  to  the  com- 
mon run  of  mortals.  The  mention  of  Swinburne's 
essay  is  an  interesting  clue  to  follow.  His  recent 
death  (1909)  has  occasioned  much  talk  about  him, 
and  at  least  his  name  is  familiar,  and  the  fact  that 
he  was  a  great  poet.  It  is  interesting  to  discover  that 
he  was  also  a  critic  of  Elizabethan  poetry.  We  are 
thus  led  to  an  important  modern  critic  and  poet  as  a 
result  of  having  struck  from  a  side  path  into  a 
history  of  Elizabethan  literature.     Mr.  Minto's  con- 

247 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

jecture  that  Chapman  was  the  "  rival  poet "  of 
Shakespeare's  sonnets  is  valuable  because  it  will 
take  us  to  those  sonnets,  and  will  give  us  our  first 
taste  of  the  great  hodgepodge  of  conjectures  and  in- 
genious guesses  which  constitute  a  large  part  of  the 
"  study  of  literature ''  and  are  so  delightful  and 
stimulating  to  lose  oneself  in.  After  you  have  read 
Shakespeare's  sonnets  and  a  biography  of  Shake- 
speare and  the  whole  of  Mr.  Saintsbury's  book,  you 
can  pick  out  some  other  Elizabethan  poet  and  con- 
jecture that  he  is  the  rival  to  whom  Shakespeare 
enigmatically  alludes.  Neither  you  nor  anyone  else 
will  ever  be  sure  who  has  guessed  right.  But  that 
matters  little.  The  value  of  the  game,  whatever  its 
foolish  aspects,  is  that  interest  in  a  problem  of  lit- 
erature or  literary  biography  cultivates  your  mind, 
keeps  you  reading,  so  entangles  you  in  books  and  the 
things  relating  to  books  that,  like  Mr.  Kipling's  hero, 
you  can't  drop  it  if  you  tried.  The  rewards  of  such 
an  interest  are  lifelong  and  satisfying,  even  if  the 
solution  is  unattainable  or  not  really  worth  attain- 
ing. The  literary  problem  is  a  changeful  wind  that 
keeps  one  forever  sailing  the  sea  of  books. 

The  rest  of  Mr.  Saintsbury's  remarks,  those  about 
English  character,  have  this  significance  for  us :  One 
cannot  read  books,  or  study  literary  problems,  without 
studying  the  people  who  produced  them.  The  study 
of  literature  is  the  study  of  national  characteristics. 
The  reason  we  Americans  know  so  much  more  about 
the  English  than  the  English  know  about  us,  is  that 
we  have  been  brought  up  on  English  literature,  while 

248 


The  Study  of  Literature 

the  Englishman  has  only  begun  to  read  our  literature. 
Mr.  Saintsbury^s  reflections  on  the  Philistinism  of 
the  English  open  at  once  to  the  reader  large  ques- 
tions, philosophic  in  their  nature,  but  not  too  phil- 
osophic for  any  ordinary  person  to  think  about,  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  English  literature  to  Con- 
tinental literature,  and  the  question  whether  the  Eng- 
lish, who  have  produced  the  greatest  of  all  modern 
poetry,  are  in  comparison  with  their  neighbors  a 
notably  poetic  race.  One  of  the  best  works  on  Eng- 
lish literature  for  the  student  to  read  and  possess, 
that  by  the  Frenchman  Taine  (the  English  transla- 
tion is  excellent),  is  based  on  a  philosophic  inquiry 
into  the  nature  of  the  English  people.  There  is,  so 
far  as  I  know,  no  analogous  study  of  American  lit- 
erature, though  Professor  Barrett  Wendell's  "  Lit- 
erary History  of  America "  might  have  developed 
into  such  a  book  if  the  author  had  taken  pains  to 
think  out  some  of  his  clever,  fugitive  suggestions. 
The  best  books  on  the  literature  of  our  country 
which  I  have  seen  are  Professor  Charles  F.  Rich- 
ardson's "  American  Literature  "  and  the  "  Man- 
ual," edited  by  Mr.  Theodore  Stanton  for  the  Ger- 
man Tauchnitz  edition  of  British  and  American 
authors,  and  published  in  this  country  by  the 
Putnams. 

Well,  we  have  entered  the  classroom  in  which  Mr. 
Saintsbury  is  discoursing  of  Elizabethan  literature, 
we  have  entered,  so  to  speak,  by  the  side  door.  If 
our  nature  is  at  all  shaped  to  receive  profit  and 
enjoyment  from  the  study  of  books,  we  shall  be  curi- 

249 


A  Guide  to  Beading 

ous  to  see  from  reading  the  whole  of  Mr.  Saints- 
bury's  book  what  has  led  up  to  Chapman  and  what 
writers  succeed  him.  Of  the  various  ways  in  which 
authors  may  be  grouped  for  analysis  the  historical 
is  the  best  for  the  young  student;  and  it  is  on  the 
historical  scheme  of  division  that  most  studies  of  lit- 
erature are  based.  A  very  useful  series  of  books 
has  been  begun  under  the  editorship  of  Professor 
William  A.  ^^Teilson  in  which  each  volume  deals  with 
a  class  of  literature,  one  with  the  essay,  one  with  the 
drama,  one  with  ballads,  and  so  on.  This  series, 
intended  for  advanced  students,  will  probably  not 
be  the  best  for  the  beginner,  though  it  is  often  true 
that  works  intended  for  advanced  readers  are  the 
very  best  for  the  young,  and  that  books  for  young 
readers  entirely  fail  as  introductions  to  more  thor- 
ough studies.  The  reader  who  is  really  interested 
in  tracing  out  the  relations  between  writers  will  in 
good  time  wish  to  read  studies  of  literature  made 
on  the  historic  plan  and  also  some  which  survey 
generic  divisions  of  literature.  The  two  methods  in- 
tersect at  right  angles.  The  main  thoroughfare  of 
literary  study  which  runs  from  the  early  story-tellers 
through  Fielding  and  Thackeray  to  Hardy  and 
George  Meredith,  crosses  the  other  great  thorough- 
fares: the  one  which  follows  the  relations  between 
Fielding,  Gray,  Johnson,  and  Burke  and  other  great 
men  of  that  age;  the  one  which  makes  its  way 
through  the  age  of  Wordsworth  and  passes  from 
Burns's  cottage  to  Scott's  Abbottsford;  and  the  one 
through  the  age  of  Victoria.    This  has  been  surveyed 

250 


The  Study  of  Literature 

as  far  as  George  Meredith,  and  the  critics  are  busily 
putting  up  the  fences  and  the  sign  posts. 

In  view  of  the  limitations  which  mere  time  im- 
poses on  the  number  of  books  which  any  individual 
may  study,  we  shall  resolve  early  not  to  attempt  the 
impossible,  not  to  try  to  study  with  great  intimacy 
the  entire  range  of  literature.  The  thing  to  do  is  to 
select,  or  to  allow  our  natural  drift  of  mind  to  select 
for  us,  one  period  of  literature,  or  one  group,  or  one 
writer  in  a  period.  In  ten  years  of  leisurely  but 
thoughtful  reading,  after  the  day's  work  is  done,  one 
can  know,  so  far  as  one's  given  capacity  will  admit, 
as  much  about  Shakespeare  as  any  Shakespeare 
scholar,  that  is,  as  much  that  is  essential  and  worth 
knowing.  lN"ot  that  ten  years  will  exhaust  Shake- 
speare or  any  other  great  poet,  but  they  will  suffice 
for  the  laying  of  a  foundation  of  knowledge  complete 
and  adequate  for  the  individual  reader,  and  on  that 
foundation  the  individual  can  build  his  personal 
knowledge  of  the  poet,  a  structure  in  which  the 
materials  furnished  by  other  students  become  of  de- 
creasing importance. 

There  is  a  story  of  a  French  scholar  who  made  up 
his  mind  to  write  a  great  book  on  Shakespeare.  In 
preparation  he  resolved  to  read  all  that  had  been 
written  about  the  poet.  He  found  that  the  accumu- 
lation of  books  on  Shakespeare  in  the  Paris  libraries 
was  a  quarry  which  he  could  not  excavate  in  a  life- 
time, and  more  appalling  still,  contemporary  scholars 
and  critics  were  producing  books  faster  than  he 
could  read  them.     This  story  should  console  and  in- 

251 


A  Guide  to  Heading 

struct  us.  We  cannot  read  all  that  has  been  written 
about  Shakespeare ;  neither  can  the  professional 
Shakespearians.  But  we  can  all  read  enough.  Two 
or  three  books  a  year  for  ten  years  will,  I  am 
sure,  put  any  student  in  possession  of  the  best  thought 
of  the  world  on  Shakespeare  or  any  other  writer. 
The  multitude  of  works  are  repetitious,  one  volume 
repeats  the  best  of  a  hundred  others,  and  most  of 
them  are  waste  matter,  even  for  the  specialist  who 
vainly  strives  to  digest  them. 

The  thing  for  us  to  learn  early  is  not  to  be  ap- 
palled by  the  miles  of  shelves  full  of  books,  but  to 
regard  them  in  a  cheerful  spirit,  to  look  at  them  as 
an  interminable  supply  of  spiritual  food  and  drink, 
a  comforting  abundance  that  shall  not  tempt  us  to  be 
gourmands.  I  am  convinced  that  young  people  are 
often  deterred  from  the  study  of  books  by  professional 
students  who  preside  over  the  long  shelves  in  the  twi- 
light of  libraries — blinking  high  priests  of  literature 
who  seem  to  say :  "  Ah !  young  seeker  of  knowledge, 
here  is  the  mystery  of  mysteries,  where  only  a  few  of 
us  after  long  and  blinding  study  are  qualified  to 
dwell.  For  five  and  forty  years  I  have  been  study- 
ing Shakespeare — ^whisper  the  name  in  reverence,  not 
for  him,  but  for  me — and  I  have  found  that  in  the 
^  Winter's  Tale  '  a  certain  comma  has  been  misplaced 
by  preceding  high  priests,  and  the  line  should  read 
thus  and  so."  Well,  if  you  go  inside  and  open  a  few 
windows  to  let  the  light  and  air  in,  you  are  likely 
to  find,  sitting  in  one  of  the  airiest  recesses,  an  ac- 
quaintance of  yours,  quite  an  ordinary  person,  who 

252 


The  Study  of  Literature 

has  read  the  "  Winter's  Tale  "  for  only  five  years, 
has  not  bothered  his  head  about  that  blessed  comma, 
can  tell  you  things  about  the  play  that  the  high  priest 
would  not  find  out  in  a  million  years,  and  is  using 
the  high  priest's  latest  disquisition  for  a  paper 
weight. 

So  approach  your  Shakespeare,  if  he  be  the  poet 
you  select  for  special  study  in  the  next  ten  years,  in 
a  light-hearted  and  confident  spirit.  He  is  sl  mystery, 
but  he  is  not  past  finding  out,  and  the  elements  of 
mystery  that  baffle,  that  deserve  respect,  are  those 
which  he  chose  to  wrap  about  himself  and  his  work. 
The  mysteries  which  others  have  hung  about  him 
are  moth-eaten  hangings  or  modern  slazy  draperies 
that  tear  at  a  vigorous  touch.  If  you  hear  learned 
literary  muttering  behind  the  arras  and  plunge  your 
sword  through,  you  will  kill,  not  the  king,  but  a 
commentator  Polonius. 

Anyone  in  the  leisure  of  his  evenings,  or  of 
his  days,  if  he  is  fortunate  enough  to  have  un- 
occupied sunlit  hours,  may  master  any  poet  in  the 
language  to  which  we  have  been  bom.  J^othing  is 
necessary  to  this  study  but  a  literate,  intelligent  mind, 
the  text  of  the  poet  and  such  books  as  one  can  get 
in  the  libraries  or  with  one's  pin  money.  And  in 
selecting  the  books  one  has  only  to  begin  at  random 
and  follow  the  lead  of  the  books  themselves.  Any 
text  of  "  Macbeth "  will  give  references  to  all  the 
critical  works  that  anyone  needs  and  they  in  turn 
will  point  to  all  the  rest.  You  do  not  need  a  labora- 
tory course  in  philology  in  order  to  read  your  poet 

253 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

and  to  know  him,  to  know  him  at  least  as  well  as 
the  philologist  knows  him,  to  know  him  better,  if 
you  have  a  spark  of  poetic  imagination.  There  is 
no  democracy  so  natural,  so  real,  and  so  increasingly 
populous  as  the  democracy  of  studious  readers.  We 
acknowledge  divinity  in  man,  in  our  poet  above  all, 
and  we  see  ilickerings  of  divinity  in  the  rare  reader 
who  is  a  critic.  But  we  do  not  acknowledge  the 
divine  right  of  Shakespearian  scholars  or  of  any 
other  self-constituted  authorities  in  books.  In  our 
literary  state  the  scholars  are  not  our  masters  but 
our  servants.  We  rejoice  that  they  are  at  work  and 
now  and  again  turn  up  for  us  a  useful  piece  of  knowl- 
edge. But  they  cannot  monopolize  knowledge  of  the 
poets.  That  is  open  to  any  of  us,  and  it  is  attain- 
able with  far  less  labor  than  the  scholars  have  led  us 
to  believe. 

The  selection  of  a  single  writer  for  special  study, 
a  selection  open  to  us  all,  should  not  be  made  in 
haste.  It  should  be  a  "  natural  selection "  deter- 
mined gradually  and  unawares.  It  will  not  do  to 
say :  "  I  will  now  begin  to  study  Shakespeare  for  ten 
years."  That  'New  Year's  resolution  will  not  sur- 
vive the  first  of  February.  But  as  you  browse  among 
books  you  may  find  yourself  especially  drawn  to  some 
one  of  the  poets  or  prose  writers.  Follow  your  mas- 
ter when  you  find  him. 

In  the  meantime  you  can  get  a  general  idea  of 
the  development  of  English  literature  and  the  place 
of  the  chief  writers.  A  good  method  is  to  read 
selections  from  English  prose  and  poetry  grouped 

254 


The  Study  of  Literature 

in  historical  sequence.  The  volumes  of  prose  edited 
by  Henry  Craik  and  Ward's  "  English  Poets  "  afford 
an  adequate  survey  of  British  literature.  Carpenter's 
"  American  Prose  "  and  Stedman's  "  American  An- 
thology "  constitute  an  excellent  introduction  to 
the  branch  of  English  literature  produced  on  this 
side  of  the  water.  The  volumes  of  selections  may 
be  accompanied  by  the  historical  handbooks  already 
mentioned,  which  deal  with  literary  periods,  or  by  one 
of  the  histories  which  cover  all  the  centuries  of  Eng- 
lish authors,  such  as  Saintsbury's  "  Short  History," 
or  Stopford  Brooke's  "  English  Literature."  The 
student  should  guard  against  spending  too  large  a 
portion  of  his  time  reading  about  literature  instead 
of  reading  the  literature  itself.  But  a  systematic 
review  of  the  history  of  a  national  literature  has 
great  value,  apart  from  the  enjoyment  of  litera- 
ture ;  it  is,  if  nothing  more,  a  course  in  history  and 
biography.  I  have  found  that  the  study  of  a  hand- 
book of  a  foreign  literature  in  which  I  could  not 
hope  to  read  extensively  was  in  effect  a  study  of  the 
development  of  the  foreign  nation.  I  never  read  a 
better  history  of  Eome  than  J.  W.  Mackail's  "  Latin 
Literature."  The  student  who  can  read  French  will 
receive  pleasure  and  profit  from  Petit  de  JuUeville's 
"  Litterature  Frangaise  "  or  from  the  shorter  "  Petit 
Histoire  "  of  M.  Delphine  Duval. 

Everyone  will  study  literature  in  his  own  way, 
keep  the  attitude  which  his  own  nature  determines, 
and  for  that  matter  the  nature  of  the  individual  will 
determine  whether  he  shall  study  literature  at  all. 

255 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

I  would  make  one  last  suggestion  to  the  eager  stu- 
dent: Let  your  study  be  diligent  and  as  serious  as 
may  be,  but  do  not  let  it  be  solemn.  I  once  attended 
a  lecture  on  literature  given  to  a  mixed  audience, 
that  is,  an  audience  composed  mainly  of  ladies.  The 
lecture  was  not  bad  in  its  way;  it  contained  a  good 
deal  of  useful  information,  but  at  times  it  reminded 
me  of  the  discourses  on  "  terewth ''  by  Mr.  Chad- 
band  in  "  Bleak  House."  It  was  the  audience  that 
was  oppressive.  The  ladies  were  not,  so  far  as  I 
could  see,  entertained,  but  they  had  paid  their  money 
for  a  dose  of  light,  literature  and  culture  and  they 
meant  to  have  it.  So  they  sat  with  looks  of  solemn 
determination  devotedly  taking  in  every  word.  Two 
ladies  near  me  were  not  solemn ;  they  concealed  their 
restiveness  and  maintained  a  respectful  but  not  quite 
attentive  demeanor.  As  I  followed  them  out,  I  heard 
one  of  them  say,  "  Would  not  Falstaff  have  roared 
to  hear  himself  talked  about  that  way "  ?  I  once 
heard  a  class  rebuked  for  laughing  aloud  at  something 
funny  in  Chaucer.  The  classroom  was  a  serious 
place  and  the  professor  was  working.  But  Chaucer 
did  not  intend  to  be  serious  at  that  moment.  On 
another  occasion  the  professor  remarked  that  it  was 
well  that  Chaucer  had  not  subjected  his  genius  to  the 
deadening  effect  of  the  universities  of  his  time,  and 
it  occurred  to  me  then  that  he  would  have  fared  about 
as  well  in  a  medieval  university  as  his  poems  were 
faring  in  a  modern  one.  Of  course  we  take  literature 
seriously;  by  a  kind  of  paradox  we  take  humorous 
literature  seriously.     But   solemnity  is  seldom  in 

256 


The  Study  of  Literature 

place  when  one  is  reading  or  studying  books.  The 
hours  of  hard  work  and  deliberate  application  which 
are  necessary  to  a  study  of  literature  should  be  joy- 
ous hours,  and  the  only  appropriate  solemnity  is  that 
directly  inspired  by  the  poets  and  prose  writers  when 
they  are  solemn. 


LIST  OF  WORKS  ON  LITERATURE 

Supplementary  to  Chapter  XII 

Below  are  given  the  titles  of  a  few  books  helpful 
to  the  student  of  literature  and  literary  history. 

Hiram  Corson.    Aims  of  Literary  Study. 

Frederic  Harrison.     Choice  of  Boohs  and  Other 
Literary  Pieces, 

George  Edward  B.  Saintsbury.    A.  Short  History 
of  English  Literature. 

Stopford  Augustus  Brooke.     English  Literature. 

William  Minto.     Manual  of  English  Prose  Lit- 
erature. 

William    Vaughn    Moody    and    Robert    Morss 
LovETT.    History  of  English  Literature. 
Remarkable  among  books  for  schools  on  account  of 
its  excellent  literary  style. 

HipPOLYTE  Adolphe  Taine.     History  of  English 
Literature. 
Philosophical  criticism  for  advanced  readers. 
257 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

Stopfoed  Augustus  Brooke.  Early  English  Lit- 
erature. 

Geoege  Edwaed  B.  Saintsbuey.  Elizabethan  Lit- 
erature. 

John  Addington  Symonds.  ShaJcespeare's  Prede- 
cessors in  the  English  Drama. 

Geoege  G.  Geeenwood.    The  Shakespeare  Problem 
Restated. 
This  work  gives  a  trustworthy  appraisal  of  many 
modern  works  on  Shakespeare.      (See  page  166  of 
this  Guide.) 

JoHiq^  Chueton  Collins.     Studies  in  Shakespeare. 

Edmund  William  Gosse.  Jacobean  Poets.  From 
Shakespeare  to  Pope.  A  History  of  Eight- 
eenth Century  Literature. 

Feancis  B.  Gummeee.    Handbook  of  Poetics. 

Thomas  Seccombe.    The  Age  of  Johnson. 

Waltee  Bagehot.    Literary  Studies. 

Chaeles    Feancis    Eichaedson.      American    Lit- 
erature. 
In  one  volume,  in  the  popular  edition. 

Theodoee  Stanton  (and  others).  Manual  of 
American  Literature. 

Edwaed  Dowden.     History  of  French  Literature, 

258 


The  Study  of  Literature 

Ferdinand  Bkunetieee.     Manual  of  the  History 
of  French  Literature, 
In  the  English  translation. 

Delphine  Duval.    Petite  Histoire  de  la  Litterature 
Frangaise. 

In  Heath's  Modern  Language  Series, 

Petit  de  Julleville.    Litterature  Frangaise, 
Both  the  foregoing  works  are  in  easy  French. 

Rene  Doumic.     Contemporary  French  Novelists, 
In  the  English  translation. 

Henry  James.    French  Poets  and  Novelists, 

KuNO  Fbancke.     History  of  German  Literature. 

Gilbert  Murray.     History  of  Ancient  Greek  Lit- 
erature, 

John  Pentland  Mahaffy.     History  of  Classical 
Greek  Literature, 

John  William  Mackail.    Latin  Literature, 


259 


CHAPTEK   XIII 

SCIENCE  AND  PHILOSOPHY 

TF  there  is  one  central  idea  which  it  is  hoped  a 
-*■  young  reader  might  find  in  the  foregoing  pages, 
it  is  this;  that  literature  is  for  everyone,  young  or 
old,  who  has  the  capacity  to  enjoy  it,  that  no  special 
fitness  is  required  but  the  gift  of  a  little  imagination, 
that  no  particular  training  can  prepare  us  for  the 
reading  of  books  except  the  very  act  of  reading.  For 
literature  is  addressed  to  the  imagination;  that  is,  a 
work  which  touches  the  imagination  becomes  Litera- 
ture as  distinguished  from  all  other  printed  things. 
By  virtue  of  its  imagination  it  becomes  permanent,  it 
remains  intelligible  to  the  human  being  of  every  race 
and  age,  the  only  conditions  of  intelligibility  being 
that  the  reader  shall  be  literate  and  that  the  book 
shall  be  in  the  language  in  which  the  reader  has  been 
brought  up  or  in  a  foreign  tongue  which  he  has 
learned  to  read.  We  have  insisted  on  a  kind  of  lib- 
erty, equality,  and  union  in  the  world  of  writers  and 
readers,  and  have,  perhaps  needlessly,  made  a  decla- 
ration of  independence  against  all  scholars,  philoso- 
phers, and  theorists  who  try  to  put  obstacles  in  our 
way  and  arrogate  to  themselves  exclusive  rights  and 
privileges,  special  understandings  of  the  world's  lit- 

260 


Science  and  Philosophy 

erature.  We  believe  that  literature  is  intended  for 
everybody  and  that  it  is  addressed  to  everybody  by 
the  creative  mind  of  art.  We  believe  that  all  readers 
are  equal  in  the  presence  of  a  book  or  work  of  art, 
but  we  hastily  qualify  this,  as  we  must  qualify  the 
political  doctrine  of  equality.  'No  two  men  are  really 
equal,  no  two  persons  will  get  the  same  pleasure  and 
benefit  from  any  book.  But  the  inequalities  are  nat- 
ural and  not  artificial.  Of  a  thousand  persons  of  all 
ages  who  read  the  "  Iliad,"  the  hundred  who  get  the 
most  out  of  it  will  include  men,  women,  and  children, 
some  who  have  "  higher  "  education  and  some  who 
have  not,  well-informed  men  and  uninformed  boys. 
The  hundred  will  be  those  who  have  the  most  imagi- 
nation. The  boy  of  fourteen  who  has  an  active  intel- 
ligence can  understand  Shakespeare  better  than  the 
least  imaginative  of  those  who  have  taken  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  English  at  our  universi- 
ties. The  man  of  imagination,  even  if  he  has  taken 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  will  find  deeper 
delight  and  wisdom  in  Shakespeare  than  the  unin- 
formed boy.  Eeaders  differ  in  individual  capacities 
and  in  the  extent  of  their  experience  in  intellectual 
matters.  But  class  differences,  especially  school- 
made  differences,  are  swept  away  by  the  power  of 
literature,  which  abhors  inessential  distinctions  and 
goes  direct  to  the  human  intelligence. 

The  direct  appeal  of  literature  to  the  human  in- 
telligence and  human  emotions  is  what  we  mean  by 
our  principle  of  union.  ^Nothing  can  divorce  us 
from  the  poet  if  we  have  a  spark  of  poetry  in  us. 

261 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

The  contact  of  mind  between  poet  and  reader  is  im- 
mediate, and  is  effected  without  any  go-between,  any 
intercessor  or  critical  negotiator. 

Now,  what  happens  to  the  principles  of  our  decla- 
ration of  independence  and  the  constitution  of  our 
democracy  of  readers  when  we  open  to  a  page  of  one 
of  Darwin's  works  on  biology,  or  a  page  of  the  phi- 
losopher Plato,  and  find  that  we  do  not  get  the  sense 
of  it  at  all  ?  We  can  understand  the  "  Iliad,"  the 
"  Book  of  Job,''  "  Macbeth,"  "  Faust " ;  they  mean 
something  to  us,  even  if  we  do  not  receive  their  whole 
import.  But  here,  in  two  great  thinkers  who  have 
influenced  the  whole  intellectual  world,  Plato  and 
Darwin,  we  come  upon  pages  that  to  us  mean  abso- 
lutely nothing.  The  works  of  Plato  and  Darwin  are 
certainly  literature.  But  they  are  something  else 
besides:  they  are  science,  and  the  understanding  of 
them  depends  on  a  knowledge  of  the  science  that 
went  before  the  particular  pages  that  are  so  mean- 
ingless to  us.  Here  is  a  kind  of  literature,  the  mere 
reading  of  which  requires  special  training. 

We  may  call  this  the  Literature  of  Information 
as  distinguished  from  the  Literature  of  Imagination. 
The  distinction  is  not  sharp ;  a  book  leans  to  one  side 
or  the  other  of  the  line,  but  it  does  not  fall  clear  of 
the  line.  A  work  of  imagination,  a  poem,  a  novel, 
or  an  essay,  may  contain  abundant  information,  may 
be  loaded  with  facts ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  greatest 
of  those  who  have  discovered  and  expounded  facts, 
Darwin,  Gibbon,  Huxley,  have  had  literary  power 
and  imagination.     But  most  great  works  of  imag- 

262 


Science  and  Philosophy 

ination  deal  with  universal  experiences,  they  treat 
human  nature  and  common  humanity^s  thought  and 
feelings  about  the  world.  As  Hazlitt  says,  nature 
and  feeling  are  the  same  in  all  periods.  So  the  com- 
mon man  understands  the  "  Iliad,"  and  the  story  of 
Joseph  and  his  brothers,  and  "  The  Scarlet  Letter '' 
and  "  Silas  Mamer." 

In  Macaulay^s  "  Essay  on  Milton  "  is  a  very  mis- 
leading piece  of  philosophizing  on  the  "  progress  of 
poesy."  It  is  a  pity,  when  there  are  so  many  better 
essays — Macaulay  wrote  twenty  better  ones — ^that 
this  should  be  selected  for  reading  in  the  schools  as 
part  of  the  requirements  for  collie  entrance.  Ma- 
caulay sees  that  the  "  Hiad  "  is  as  great  a  poem  as 
the  world  has  known.  He  also  sees  that  science  in 
his  own  time  is  progressing  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
that,  in  his  own  vigorous  words,  "  any  intelligent 
man  may  now,  by  resolutely  applying  himself  for  a 
few  years  to  mathematics,  learn  more  than  the  great 
Newton  knew  after  half  a  century  of  study  and  medi- 
tation." He  accordingly  reasons,  or  rather  makes 
the  long  jump,  that  whereas  science  prc^esses,  poetry 
declines  with  the  advance  of  civilization,  and  the 
wonder  is  that  Milton  should  have  written  so  great  a 
poem  in  a  "  civilized  "  age.  Macaulay  was  young 
when  he  wrote  the  essay;  he  seldom  muddled  ideas 
as  badly  as  that  Poetry,  if  we  view  the  history  of 
the  world  in  five-century  periods,  neither  advances 
nor  declines.  It  fluctuates  from  century  to  century, 
but  it  keex)s  a  general  permanent  level.  Now  and 
again  appears  a  new  poet  to  add  to  the  number  of 

263 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

poems,  but  poetry  does  not  change.  ^N'either  does  the 
individual  poem.  The  "  Iliad  "  is  precisely  what  it 
was  two  thousand  years  ago,  and  two  thousand  years 
from  now  it  will  be  neither  diminished  nor  aug- 
mented. Creative  art,  dealing  with  universal  ideas 
and  feelings  and  needing  only  a  well-developed  lan- 
guage to  work  in,  can  produce  a  masterpiece  in  any 
one  of  forty  countries  any  time  the  genius  is  born 
capable  of  doing  the  work.  This  statement  is  too 
simple  to  exhaust  a  large  subject.  The  point  is  that 
once  man  has  reached  a  certain  point  of  culture, 
has  come  to  have  a  language  and  a  religion  and  a 
national  tradition,  more  civilization  or  less,  more 
science  or  less,  neither  helps  nor  hinders  his  art. 
The  arrival  of  a  great  poet  can  be  counted  on  every 
two  or  three  centuries.  It  is  because  poetry  and 
other  forms  of  imaginative  literature  are  independent 
of  time  and  progress  that  the  reader's  ability  to 
understand  them  is  independent  of  time  and  prog- 
ress. Our  boys  can  understand  the  "  Iliad."  Fetch 
a  Greek  boy  back  from  ancient  Athens  and  give  us 
his  Greek  tongue  and  we  can  interest  him  in  Mil- 
ton's story  of  Satan  in  half  a  day.  But  it  will 
take  a  year  or  two  to  make  him  understand  an  ele- 
mentary schoolbook  about  electricity.  The  great 
ideas  about  human  nature  and  human  feelings  and 
about  the  visible  world  and  the  gods  men  dream  of 
and  believe  in,  these  are  the  stuff  of  Imaginative 
Literature;  they  have  been  expressed  over  and  over 
again  in  all  ages  and  are  intelligible  to  a  Chinaman 
or  an  Englishman  of  the  year  one  thousand  or  the 

264 


Science  and  Philosophy 

year  two  thousand.  That  is  why  we  are  all  citizens 
in  the  democracy  of  readers.  That  is  why  we  do 
not  need  special  knowledge  to  read  "  Hamlet," 
why  the  most  direct  preparation  for  the  reading 
of  "Hamlet"  is  the  reading  of  "Macbeth"  and 
"  Lear." 

'NoWy  all  special  subjects,  biology,  geology,  zoology, 
political  economy,  are  continually  being  forced  by 
the  imaginative  power  of  great  writers  into  the  realm 
of  Imaginative  Literature.  Poetry  is  full  of  philos- 
ophy. Our  novels  are  shot  through  and  through  with 
problems  of  economics.  Great  expositors  like  Hux- 
ley and  Mill  are  working  over  and  interpreting  the 
discoveries  of  science,  relating  them  to  our  common 
life  and  making,  not  their  minute  facts  but  their  bear- 
ing, clear  to  the  ordinary  man.  So  that  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  science  and  philosophy  within  the  reach 
of  the  untrained  reader.  And  a  wide  general  read- 
ing prepares  any  person,  by  giving  him  a  multitude 
of  hints  and  stray  bits  of  information,  to  make  his 
way  through  a  technical  volume  devoted  to  one  special 
subject.  The  moral  talks  of  Socrates  to  Athenian 
youths  lead  one  on,  as  Socrates  seems  to  have  in- 
tended to  lead  those  boys  on,  into  the  uttermost  fields 
of  philosophy.  The  genial  essayists,  Stevenson, 
Lamb,  Emerson,  are  all  tinged  with  philosophy  and 
science,  at  least  the  social  and  political  sciences. 
And  when  an  idle  reader  approaches  a  new  subject, 
economics,  chemistry,  or  philosophy,  he  often  finds 
with  delight  that  he  has  been  reading  about  it  all 
his  life.     He  is  like  the  man  in  Moliere's  comedy 

265 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

who  was  surprised  to  find  that  he  had  always  been 
speaking  prose. 

Yet  there  remains  a  good  deal  of  the  Literature  of 
Information  which  can  be  understood  only  after  a 
gradual  approach  to  it  through  other  works.  You 
must  learn  the  elements  of  chemistry  before  you  can 
understand  the  arguments  of  the  modern  men  of 
science  about  radium.  You  must  read  some  elemen- 
tary discussions  of  economics  before  you  can  take 
part  in  the  arguments  about  protection  and  free  trade, 
socialism,  banking,  and  currency. 

At  this  point  the  Guide  to  Reading  parts  company 
with  you  and  leaves  you  in  the  hands  of  the  econo- 
mists, the  historians,  the  chemists,  the  philosophers. 
Special  teachers  and  advisers  will  conduct  you  into 
those  subjects.  They  are  organized  subjects.  The 
paths  to  them  are  steep  but  well  graded  and  paved. 
If  you  wander  upon  these  paths  without  guidance 
you  will  not  harm  yourself,  and,  if  you  do  not  try 
to  discuss  what  you  do  not  understand,  you  will  not 
harm  anyone  else.  The  list  of  works  in  philosophy 
and  science  which  I  append  includes  some  that  I,  an 
errant  reader,  have  stumbled  into  with  pleasure  and 
profit.  I  do  not  know  surely  whether  any  one  of 
them  is  the  best  in  its  subject  or  whether  it  is  the 
proper  work  to  read  first.  I  only  know  in  general 
that  a  civilized  man  should  for  his  own  pleasure 
and  enlightenment  set  his  wits  against  a  hard  tech- 
nical book  once  in  a  while  for  the  sake  of  the  exercise, 
and  that  although  for  purposes  of  wisdom  and  happi- 
ness the  Literature  of  the  Ages  contains  all  that  is 

266 


Science  and  Philosophy 

necessary,  everybody  ought  to  go  a  little  way  into 
Bome  special  subject  that  lies  less  in  the  realm  of 
literature  than  in  the  realm  of  science. 

LIST  OF  WORKS  IN  SCIENCE  AND  PHILOSOPHY 
Supplementary  to  Chapter  XIII 

In  this  list  are  a  few  volumes  of  scientific  and 
philosophic  works,  notable  for  their  literary  ex- 
cellence, or  for  their  clearness  to  the  general  reader, 
or  for  the  historical  and  human  importance  of  the 
author.  There  is  no  attempt  at  order  or  system  ex- 
cept the  alphabetical  sequence  of  authors.  Some 
philosophic  and  scientific  works  will  be  found  in  the 
list  of  essays,  on  page  192. 

Gra-nt  Allen.    The  Story  of  the  Plants, 
In  Appleton's  Library  of  Useful  Stories, 

Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus.    Thoughts  or  Medi- 
tations. 

In  Everyman's  Library  and  many  cheap  editions. 

John  Lubbock  (Lord  Avebury).     The  Beauties  of 
Nature  and  the  Wonders  of  the  World  We  Live 
In,    The  Use  of  Life. 
A  popular  writer  on  scientific  and  philosophic  sub- 
jects. 

Liberty  Hyde  Bailey.    First  Lessons  with  Plants, 
Garden  Making, 

Egbert  Stawell  Ball.     The  Earth's  Beginning, 
Star-Land:     Being  Talks  with  Young  People, 
267 


A  Guide  to  Reading 

John  Burroughs.  Birds  and  Bees  and  Other  Stud- 
ies in  Nature,  Squirrels  and  Other  Fur 
Bearers. 

These   books    are   especially   suitable   for  young 
readers. 

Charles  Tripler  Child.     The  How  and  Why  of 
Electricity. 
For  the  uninformed  reader. 

James  Dwight  Dana.  The  Geological  Story  Briefly 
Told. 

Charles  Robert  Darwin.     On  the  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies.    What  Mr.  Darwin  Saw  in  His  Voyage 
Round  the  World  in  the  Ship  "  Beagle. ^^ 
The  second  of  the  two  books  named  is  especially 
for  young  readers.    The  book  from  which  it  is  taken, 
Darwin's  "  Journal  "  of  the  voyage  is  in  Everyman's 
Library.     For  expositions  of  Darwin's  theories,  see 
Huxley's   "  Darwiniana,"   Wallace's   "  Darwinism  " 
and  David  Starr  Jordan's  "  Footnotes  to  Evolution." 

GoLDswoRTHY  LowEs  DicKiNsoN.  The  Greeh  View 
of  Life.     A  Modern  Symposium. 

Robert  Kennedy  Duncan.     The  New  Knowledge. 
A  popular  exposition  of  theories  of  matter  that 
have  developed  since  the  discovery  of  radioactivity. 
Intelligible  to  any  (intelligent)  high-school  pupil. 

Epictetus.    Discourses. 

The  English  translation  in  Bohn's  Library. 

268 


Science  and  Philosophy 

Francis  Galtoi^^.    Natural  Inheritance.    Inquiries 
into  Human  Faculty. 
The  second  volume  is  in  Everyman  s  Library. 

Akchibald  Geikie.    Class-Booh  of  Geology. 

Henry  George.    Our  Land  and  Land  Policy.    The 
Science  of  Political  Economy. 

Asa  Gray.    Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern 
United  States. 

Arthur  Twining  Hadley.     The  Education  of  the 
American  Citizen. 

Hermann   Ludwig   Ferdinand  von   Helmholtz. 
Popular  Lectures  on  Scientific  Subjects. 
In  the  English  translation  by  Edmund  Atkinson 
with  Helmholtz's  "  Autobiography  "  and  an  introduc- 
tion by  TyndalL 

Karl  Hilty.     Happiness:  Essays  on  the  Meaning 
of  Life. 
Translated  by  Francis  Greenwood  Peabody. 

William  Temple  Hornaday.    The  American  Nat- 
ural History. 

Charles  de  Forest  Hoxie.    How  the  People  Rule; 
Civics  for  Boys  and  Girls. 

Thomas  Henry  Huxley.    Darwiniana.    Evolution 
and  Ethics.    Mans  Place  in  Nature. 
Huxley   is   the   greatest    man   of   letters    among 
modem  English  men  of  science.     A  volume  of  his 
essays  is  in  Everyman's  Library. 

269 


A  Guide  to  Eeading 

Ernest  Ingersoll.     Booh  of  the  Ocean. 
Especially  for  young  people. 

Harold  Jacoby.    Practical  Talks  by  an  Astronomer* 

William  James.     The  Principles  of  Psychology. 
The  Will  to  Believe. 

Herbert  Keightly  Job.    Among  the  Water-Fowl. 

David  Starr  Jordan.     Tr^ue  Tales  of  Birds  and 
Beasts. 
Especially  for  young  readers. 

William  Thomson  (Lord  Kelvin).     Popular  Lec- 
tures and  Addresses. 

Henry  Demarest  Lloyd.     Wealth  Against  Com- 
monwealth. 
An  important  work  on  modern  economic  and  busi- 
ness problems. 

Joiix  Stuart  Mill.     On  Liberty.     Principles  of 
Political  Economy. 

John  Morley.     On  Compromise. 

Hugo  Munsterberg.  Psychology  and  Life,   On  the 
Witness  Stand. 

Erederic  William  Henry  Myers.    Science  and  a 
Future  Life. 

Simon  IJ^ewcomb.    Astronomy  for  Everybody. 

George  Herbert  Palmer.     The  Field  of  Ethics. 
The  Nature  of  Goodness. 
270 


Science  and  Philosophy 
Walter  Hoeatio  Patee.    Plato  and  Platonism. 

Feiedeich  Paulsen.  Introduction  to  Philosophy. 
The  excellent  English  translation  affords  within 
easy  compass  a  view  of  philosophy  equal  to  several 
elementary  courses  in  philosophy  at  a  university.  It 
may  be  begun  by  any  young  man  or  woman  of,  say, 
eighteen. 

Plato.     Dialogues, 

The  "  Kepublic  "  is  in  Everyman's  Library  and  in 
other  cheap  editions.  Several  of  the  dialogues  are 
to  be  found  under  the  title,  "  Trial  and  Death  of 
Socrates  "  in  the  Golden  Treasury  Series.  See  also 
Walter  Pater's  "  Plato  and  Platonism."  The  great 
Plato  in  English  is  Jowett's. 

Jacob  August  Kiis.     The  Battle  with  the  Slum. 

How  the  Other  Half  Lives.     The  Children  of 

the  Poor. 
Among  the  most  sensible,  sympathetic  and  human 
of  modem  works  on  sociology. 

JosiAH  Eoyce.     The  Spirit  of  Modern  Philosophy. 

Studies  of  Good  and  Evil.    The  World  and  the 

Individual. 
"  The  Spirit  of  Modern  Philosophy ''  is  a  beau- 
tifully written  introduction  to  the  study  of  philos- 
ophy. 

Geoege  Santayana.    The  Sense  of  Beauty.    Poetry 
and  Religion. 

271 


A  Guide  to  Eeading  - 

Gaeeett  Putnam  Seeviss.  Astronomy  with  an 
Opera  Glass, 

!N"athaniel  Southgate  Shalee.  Aspects  of  the 
Earth,  The  Individual:  A  Study  of  Life  amd 
Death.    Nature  and  Man  in  America, 

Dallas  Loee  Shaep.  A  Watcher  in  the  Woods, 
Wild  Life  Near  Home. 

Heney  Sidgwick.  The  Elements  of  Politics,  The 
Methods  of  Ethics, 

Heebeet  Spencee.  First  Principles,  The  Prin- 
ciples of  Ethics,     The  Principles  of  Sociology. 

SiLVANUS  Phillips  Thompsois^.  Elementary  Les- 
sons in  Electricity  and  Magnetism, 

EiCHAED   Chenevix   Teench.      On  the  Study   of 
Words, 
Contains  all  the  philology  that  anyone  needs. 

John  Tyndall.   Fragments  of  Science,   New  Frag- 
ments,    Essays  on  the  Imagination  in  Science. 
Glaciers  of  the  Alps  and  Mountaineering  in 
1861, 
The  last  volume  is  in  Everyman's  Library,  with 

an  introduction  by  Lord  Avebury. 

Alfeed  Bussel  Wallace.  Mans  Place  in  the 
Universe,  The  Malay  Archipelago.  Australia 
and  New  Zealand, 

GiLBEET  White.     Natural  History  and  Antiquities 
of  SeTborne, 
In  Everyman's  Library. 

272 


Science  and  Philosophy 

WiLHELM  WiiS^DELBAND.     Histovy  of  Aficient  Phi- 
losophy. 

Walteb  Augustus  Wyckoff.  The  Workers:  An 
Experiment  in  Reality, 
The  story  of  a  professor  of  economics  and  sociology 
who  became  a  laborer.  Interesting  as  a  story  and 
a  good  popular  introduction  to  the  problems  of  labor 
and  wages. 


THE    END 


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